Third National Economic Census: Work Almost Completed and Significant Findings Achieved

National Bureau of Statistics of China 2014-12-16 10:00 Print| Large| Medium| Small

Third National Economic Census:

Work Almost Completed and

Significant Findings Achieved

 

Ma Jiantang

Deputy Head of the Leading Group of the State Council

for the Third National Economic Census

Commissioner of the National Bureau of Statistics of China

December 16, 2014

 

The third national economic census, which took over two years, has come to an end. We are holding a press conference here today to make a briefing on the progress of the census and some major findings.

 

I.     Objectives, Major Work and Process of the Economic Census

 

The main objectives of the third national economic census are to take a complete survey of China’s secondary and tertiary industries in terms of their size and distribution; to further verify the development of service industry, strategic emerging industry, and small and micro enterprises; to have a clear picture of the basic conditions of units of different types; to update the business register for all sectors of the national economy, the basic information database and the statistical-geographic information system; and to provide sound and accurate statistical information for strengthening and improving macro-economic control, accelerating strategic economic restructuring and making mid-term and long-term development plans.

 

The economic census covers all legal entities, establishments and self-employed units in the secondary and tertiary industries within the territory of China. The reference time for the census is December 31, 2013, and the data collected cover the whole year of 2013.

 

As an important survey on the national conditions and strength, the economic census is a huge social mobilization. From November 2012, under the unified leadership of the Central Party Committee and the State Council, with the strong support of all localities and departments in the census organization, and thanks to the unremitting efforts of the 3 million enumerators, the third national economic census has completed all stages of work, including organizational set-up, publicity and mobilization, census plan development, tests and pilots, training of personnel, division of census areas, verification of reporting units, on-site data collection, centralized data verification, quality checking, aggregation and evaluation. Now, we have entered the stages of dissemination of the main data, and development and application of the data.

 

II.    Major Characteristics of the Economic Census

 

1. Great Attention and Thoughtful Organization to Develop Strong Synergy

 

The State Council issued the “Notice on Conducting the Third National Economic Census”, set up the Census Leading Group and its Office, and held leading group meetings as well as national video-conferences. Premier Li Keqiang made important instructions on the census and Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli went to the census field and gave guidance. Governments at all levels strengthened their leadership of the organization of the census, set up census agencies and organized the census in an active way in accordance with the unified deployment by the State Council. All relevant departments played an active role, offered their cooperation and provided various kinds of assistance needed, all which ensured a successful conduct of the census.

 

2. Systematic Design and Rigorous Implementation to Ensure a Scientific Conduct of the Census

 

In accordance with the requirements for a “scientific, truth-seeking and feasible” undertaking put forward by leaders from the State Council, the Economic Census Office of the State Council took references to the experiences of the previous censuses, sought different views from all parties, and formulated the Third National Economic Census Plan and 13 sets of technical standards and operating procedures after repeated studies and careful pilot work. Full-coverage training activities were organized. A complete clearance and on-site verification of reporting units were conducted. We spared no effort to take the on-site enumeration for all the respondent entities and a sample survey of self-employed units, to conduct real-time monitoring of collection, to report census data by using information technology, and to verify data by level and by sector.

 

3. Innovation on Tools and Real-time Transmission to Improve the Informatization Level

 

Firstly, PDA was used in on-spot enumeration for the first time: locating the geographical position of the census respondents, taking photos of licenses, and collecting and uploading data.

 

Secondly, for the first time, nearly one million enterprises above designated size completed the census questionnaires through and reported data directly to the national data center through the internet.

 

Thirdly, data were produced in electronic forms and through the Internet for the first time, which guaranteed the credibility of data and improved work efficiency.

 

4. Strengthened Supervision and Transparent Process to Improve the Credibility

 

Firstly, a rigorous post-enumeration check was conducted. Over 330 people were seconded nationwide to compose 31 post-enumeration check teams. It took more than half a month to check 12,788 units from 306 enumeration districts selected from 105 sampling counties (cities, districts).

 

Secondly, innovations were made to form new supervision mode. We invited over 30 correspondents from local presses and recruited 31 civilians through the Internet who acted as voluntary inspectors to participate in the post-enumeration check.

 

In general, the census achieved its goals of ascertaining the secondary and tertiary industries in China and reflecting the national economic and social development status. The census was conducted in an open and transparent manner with high data quality and work efficiency. The results of the post-census check showed that the net underreport rate was 0.8 per thousand and the combined error rate was 3.3 per thousand.

 

III.   Major Findings of the Economic Census

 

1. Basic Conditions of Units

 

At the end of 2013, there were 10,857 thousand legal entities engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries, up by 52.9 percent or an increase of 3,758 thousand compared with that at the end of 2008 when the second national economic census took place; there were 13,035 thousand establishments, up by 47.1 percent or an increase of 4,171 thousand. The number of licensed self-employed units was 32.791 million, up by 14.1 percent or an increase of 4,054 thousand.

 

In terms of regions, 6,019 thousand legal entities engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries were in the eastern region of China, accounting for 55.4 percent of the total; 2,141 thousand in the central region, accounting for 19.7 percent; 1,974 thousand in the western region, accounting for 18.2 percent and 722 thousand in the northeast region, accounting for 6.7 percent. The number of licensed self-employed units in the eastern region was 13,114 thousand, accounting for 40 percent of the total; that in central regional totaled 7,625 thousand, accounting for 23.3 percent; that in western region was 9,154 thousand or 27.9 percent of the total, and that in the northeast region was 2,897 thousand, accounting for 8.8 percent of the total.

 

In terms of industrial sectors, the top three sectors of legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries were wholesale and retail with 2,811 thousand entities, taking up 25.9 percent of the total; manufacturing with 2,253 thousand, taking up 20.7 percent; and public management, social welfare and social organizations with 1,520 thousand entities, taking up 14 percent. The top three sectors of licensed self-employed units were wholesale and retail with 16,427 thousand units, taking up 50.1 percent; transportation, storage and post with 8,786 thousand units, taking up 26.8 percent; and hotels and catering services with 2,408 thousand units, taking up 7.3 percent.

 

In terms of the status of registration, at the end of 2013, there were 8,208 thousand corporate enterprises in the secondary and tertiary industry, an increase of 3,249 thousand or up by 65.5 percent as compared with that at the end of 2008. Of them, 113 thousand were state-owned enterprises, accounting for 1.4 percent; 5,604 thousand were private enterprises, accounting for 68.3 percent; 97 thousand were Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan funded enterprises, accounting for 1.2 percent and 106 thousand were foreign funded enterprises, accounting for 1.3 percent.

 

2. Situation of Persons Employed

 

At the end of 2013, the total number of 356,023 thousand persons were employed by legal entities involved in the secondary and tertiary industries, an increase of 82,908 thousand, up by 30.4 percent compared with that at the end of 2008. Of the total number of persons in legal entities, there were 125,805 thousand women, accounting for 35.3 percent. There were 90,134 thousand persons employed by self-employed units with licenses, an increase of 8,180 thousand or up by 10 percent compared with that at the end of 2008.

 

In terms of regions, at the end of 2013, there were 192,245 thousand persons employed by legal entities engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries in the eastern region, 54 percent of the total; 74,288 thousand in the central region, 20.9 percent; 65,672 thousand in the western region, 18.4 percent; and 23,818 thousand in the northeast region, 6.7 percent of the total. Among persons employed by licensed self-employed units, 39,261 thousand were in the eastern region, accounting for 43.6 percent; 20,957 thousand were in the central region, accounting for 23.3 percent; 23,056 thousand were in the western region, accounting for 25.6 percent; and 6,860 thousand were in the northeast region, 7.6 percent of the total.

 

In terms of industrial sectors, the top three sectors with persons employed by the legal entities were manufacturing with 125,151 thousand persons employed, taking up 35.2 percent; construction with 53,206 thousand, taking up 14.9 percent; wholesale and retail with 33,150 thousand, taking up 9.3 percent. Among the licensed self-employed units, the top three industrial sectors were wholesale and retail with 41,666 thousand persons employed, taking up 46.2 percent; transportation, storage and post with 16,745 thousand, taking up 18.6 percent; and hotels and catering services with 10,694 thousand, taking up 11.9 percent.

 

3. Total Assets of Enterprises

 

At the end of 2013, the total amount of assets of enterprises engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries stood at 466.8 trillion yuan, an increase of 259 trillion yuan or up by 124.6 percent over the end of 2008.

 

4. Conditions of the Service Sector

 

At the end of 2013, there were 8,113 thousand legal entities engaged in the tertiary industry, accounting for 74.7 percent of all the legal entities, up 5.7 percentage points compared with that of 2008. The number of persons employed in the tertiary industry was 163,266 thousand, accounting for 45.9 percent of the total number, up 3.5 percentage points compared with that of 2008.

 

5. Conditions of Small and Micro Enterprises

 

At the end of 2013, there were 7,850 thousand small and micro enterprises in the secondary and tertiary industries, accounting for 95.6 percent of the corporate enterprises. A total of 147,304 thousand persons were employed by small and micro enterprises, accounting for 50.4 percent of those at all corporate enterprises.

 

6. Conditions of Strategic Emerging Enterprises

 

At the end of 2013, there were 166 thousand strategic emerging enterprises in the secondary and tertiary industries, accounting for 2 percent of all corporate enterprises. Strategic emerging enterprises had 23,623 thousand persons employed, accounting for 8.1 percent of the total in all corporate enterprises.

 

7. Major Changes in Economic Structure

 

In terms of legal entities, those engaged in the secondary industry accounted for 25.3 percent, down 5.7 percentage points over the end of 2008; and the legal entities in the tertiary industry accounted for 74.7 percent, up by 5.7 percentage points. The persons employed by legal entities in the secondary industry accounted for 54.1 percent of all legal entities, 3.5 percentage points lower than that at the end of 2008; and the persons employed by legal entities in the tertiary industry accounted for 45.9 percent, or 3.5 percentage points higher.

 

The above are major aggregate data from the third national economic census. The economic census obtained huge amounts of basic data. Following the spirit of collecting data from the people and using data for the people, more census data will be released to the public in accordance with law to maximize their use. Firstly, we will disseminate census data in various forms. The NBS will make use of Internet, newspaper, magazines, yearbooks and visualized tools to gradually disseminate more and more aggregate census data to the public. Secondly, we will conduct an in-depth development of the census data. As precious social treasure, the census information provides important basis for government macro-economic policy and business decision-making. We will make innovations in development and application mode and play an active role in organizing relevant departments, research institutions and universities to further develop the census data through such forms as project bidding and joint research. Such projects will provide detailed and accurate statistical support for the formulation of China’s Thirteenth Five-Year Plan program and for the sustained and sound development of our economy.

 

 

(In case of any differences between English translation and the original Chinese  text, the Chinese version shall prevail.)