On the morning of March 17^th, the General Statistics Office, directly under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, held a national statistical conference with the theme "Strengthening discipline, improving efficiency". Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended the conference.

Participants in the conference also included Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung, Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyen Hong Dien, leaders of ministries, sectors and central agencies, and Ms. Caitlin Wiesen, UNDP Resident Representative in Viet Nam.

Delegates at the Dak Lak Province’s live broadcast

Participants in the conference at the Dak Lak Province’s live broadcast included Ms. H'Yim Kdoh, Vice Chairman of the People's Committee of Dak Lak Province, and leaders of the Dak Lak Department of Statistics, departments and sectors.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh delivers a speech at the national statistics conference with the theme "Strengthening discipline, improving efficiency".

Speaking at the conference, Minister Nguyen Chi Dung said that statistical information plays a very important role. It is an official and legal source of information and the basis for assessing, analyzing, and forecasting the socio-economic situation of the entire country and each sector or field, thereby promptly assisting the leadership, direction, administration and policy making of the Party, National Assembly, Government, Prime Minister, ministries, sectors and localities.

Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung delivers a speech at the conference

For the purpose of building a strong statistical apparatus to effectively provide information for the direction and administration of the Party and State and for the people, this conference aimed to strengthen discipline and improve the efficiency of centralized statistics and statistics of ministries, sectors and localities through re-evaluating the implementation of the Law on Statistics and the tasks assigned by the Government and the Prime Minister.

Moreover, the conference also set out tasks and solutions so that Viet Nam's statistics will reach an advanced level in the ASEAN region through 2030 and become a modern statistical system in the world through 2045 as the goal set out in the Viet Nam Statistical Development Strategy for the 2021-2030 period, with a vision to 2045.

Leader of the General Statistics Office reports at the conference

According to the report of the General Statistics Office and the comments at the conference, the system of legal documents on statistics has been promptly revised, closely followed actual conditions and effectively implemented. The organizational model of the General Statistics Office has been consolidated, and the human resource’s qualification has been increasingly improved.

In addition, professional tasks have been strictly and methodically performed with specific processes including collecting, synthesizing, processing, publishing and storing statistical information. Information technology has been thoroughly applied for collecting statistical information. In particular, time and costs for the 2019 Population and Housing Census and the 2021 Economic Census were saved compared to previous census periods.

Besides, State Statistics has ensured regular and extraordinary information for the management and administration of leaders of the Party, State, ministries, sectors and local authorities through reports on socio-economic situation, thematic reports, economic growth scenarios, and scenarios of operating prices of some essential commodities. Statistical data have been consistently used for assessing, summarizing and building socio-economic development strategies and plans at the central and local levels as well as for building national and local master plans.

The conference is connected to the live broadcasts around Viet Nam

However, there have been limitations in statistical activities. There is a lack of a centralized database on statistics. The coordination and sharing of statistical information between the statistical systems of the ministries, central sectors, departments and local sectors and the General Statistics Office still has many limitations. It is sometimes not promptly, especially in urgent times.

Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that leadership and direction must come from reality, respect reality, closely follow reality, and take reality as a measure, because reality is very clearly shown through the statistics and the important information is formed from the statistics. The development and application of artificial intelligence must also rely on large databases.

Therefore, the three activities including data statistics, data analysis and evaluation and data use have a very close relationship. In which, statistics is the foundation and center for analysis, evaluation and forecast in order to serve the goal of sustainable and inclusive socio-economic development as well as serve the people. The people can enjoy the results of statistics, and no one gets left behind.

The Prime Minister said that in 2022, it is forecasted that there will be both advantages and difficulties as well as both opportunities and challenges, but difficulties and challenges will be more. In that context, we will continue to implement "multi-target" including adapting safely and flexibility and effectively controlling epidemics; rapidly recovering and sustainably develop socio-economy; maintaining independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity; ensuring political stability and social order and safety; ensuring social security; promoting international integration; and being a friend, a reliable partner and a responsible member of the international community.

In order to successfully implement the set goals, with the Government's action motto of "Solidarity and discipline, proactive adaptation, safety and efficiency, recovery and development", sectors, agencies and localities must make more efforts; in which, the promotion of statistics plays an important role.

Accordingly, it is necessary to think carefully, make great efforts, take effective action, and complete tasks successfully. It is also necessary to implement and promote clear issues that are proven to be correct, effectively implemented, and agreed by the majority. If the issues are not agreed or there are no regulations on them, it is necessary to innovate, work and learn from experience.