HÀ NỘI — Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ asked all ministries and agencies to pay more attention to the importance of statistics, as incorrect data could ruin Government policies.

He made the request yesterday at a conference held by the General Statistics Office (GSO) of Việt Nam, stressing that measurements of the performance of the economy are needed as the country moves towards a market system.

However, the Government leader pointed to the fact that many ministries and agencies have not fulfilled their reporting duties.

The Statistics Law 2015 provides for 186 national statistics divided into 20 categories ranging from agriculture and transport to population and environment matters. The collection and reporting of 79 statistics were assigned to 21 ministries.

But so far, only 34 statistical figures have been collected and reported as required. Twenty-nine statistics are being measured but have not been submitted to the GSO, while work on 16 statistics has not even started, Deputy PM Huệ said.

The Government Office is one of the biggest offenders, accounting for six out of the 16 statistics, followed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment with three. The remaining measures are shared between the home affairs, justice, finance and industry ministries.

GSO Director Nguyễn Bích Lâm said that despite improved collaboration between the office and the ministries in recent times, communication between the agencies and the capacity of the statistics workers can be improved.

“The implementation of information technology in the collection of statistics has room for improvement, especially at the local level, leading to delays in reporting and affecting the quality of the data,” Lâm said.

Deputy PM Huệ also expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that less than half of the ministries and central-level agencies have issued official mechanisms to share statistics.

“The law was passed in 2015,” he said. “How does this reflect on our legal compliance?”

He said ministries must work on statistics issues because Việt Nam is set to conduct several large-scale statistical projects, such as taking stock of the economic resources, the 2019 national population and housing census, the ASEAN statistics integration scheme and the study on Việt Nam’s non-observed economy.

He also urged the GSO to focus on analysis of collected data and to derive forecasts and proposals for the Government to refer to in its decision making. — VNS