The Fourth National Economic Census Achieved Major Outcomes

National Bureau of Statistics of China 2019-11-20 10:00 Print| Large| Medium| Small

National Bureau of Statistics

Office of the Leading Group of the State Council

for the Fourth National Economic Census

(November 20, 2019)

 

Under the strong leadership of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, according to the coordinated arrangements of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Fourth National Economic Census, with the close collaboration among all localities and government departments and unremitting efforts of over 1.6 million enumerators, the fourth national economic census has completed the data collection and the aggregation of main data. Today, a conference is held to make a briefing on the progress of the census and some major data.

 

. Main Features of the Economic Census

 

The main objectives of the fourth national economic census were to take a complete survey of China’s secondary and tertiary industries in terms of their size, distribution and performance; to grasp the industrial organization, industrial structure, industrial technology, forms of industry and composition of production factors; to get a clear picture of the assets and liabilities of all legal entities and the development of the emerging industries; to further verify the basic conditions and economic activities of all units; to comprehensively reflect the progress of reform and development; and to provide scientific and accurate statistical data as the support for strengthening and improving macro-economic regulation, deepening the supply-side structural reform, making mid- and long-term development plans in a scientific way and advancing the modernization of national governance system and national governance capability. The economic census covered 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 was December 31, 2018, and the data collected covered the whole year of 2018.

 

The main features of this economic census were as follows:

 

1. The CPC Central Committee and the State Council Highly Valued this Census with Strong Guarantees from all Respects. General Secretary Xi Jinping attached great importance to this census, Premier Li Keqiang made specific instructions on the census, and Vice Premier Han Zheng headed the Leading Group of the State Council for the Fourth National Economic Census. Upholding the principle of “unified leadership nationwide, labour division and cooperation among government departments, tiered responsibilities at local levels, and participation from all aspects”, all governments above and at the town, street community and county levels as well as relevant government departments set up census institutions, brought the staff, measures and funds all in place, and ensured successful implementation of this census.

 

2. Scientific Design and Effective Implementation of the Census Plan. The top-down design was strengthened with a focus on a more scientific and normative census. After completing special pilot tests in six provinces (municipalities) and comprehensive pilot tests in five provinces (municipalities), the Office of the Leading Group formulated the Plan for the Fourth National Economic Census and the business process with 13 steps, organized the multilevel and systematic training, and undertook a thorough inventory checking. A full-coverage survey was conducted on legal entities and establishments. The data collection and reporting were also monitored in real time to ensure that census data were authentic and reliable.

 

3. Innovative Census Approaches and Higher Informatization Level. The results of the “Five-in-One Business License” reform were actively applied to effectively reduce the respondent burden and census cost. In total, 34 government departments were involved in this census as members of the Office of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Fourth National Economic Census. Administrative records and information collected in daily work from government departments were fully exploited, and about 100 million basic sheets data for inventory checking and census were generated through comparison and combination. The coverage of units submitting through the online direct reporting platform was expanded, data collection through Portable Android Devices (PADs) was deployed, auto identification of industrial codes and auto coding techniques were adopted for the first time and the integration of big data and census data was advanced. Therefore, the efficiency of data collection and data processing was significantly improved.

 

4. Census was Conducted by Law with Violations Being Promptly Dealt with. The newly-revised Regulations on National Economic Census was strictly followed, a data tracking and accountability mechanism for data quality assurance was established and improved, a mechanism for demonstration of enterprises with serious dishonesty in statistical work and joint punitive action was comprehensively implemented, and greater efforts were made to deal with violations of disciplines and laws. During this census, the Office of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Fourth National Economic Census dealt with 61 clues to the violations of laws and disciplines in the census, put 39 cases on file for investigation and law inspection, informed and exposed violations during this economic census in time, all guaranteeing the quality of source data.

 

5. The Guidance was Strengthened to Guarantee the Whole-process Quality Assurance of the Census. The Office of the Leading Group of the State Council for the Fourth National Economic Census supervised and checked all stages of the census, ensuring the census research and guidance would cover 31 provinces (regions, municipalities) across the country. The Office of the Leading Group also conducted the largest and the most organized post enumeration check ever by checking basic conditions, correctness of enumeration operation and data differences of variables of selected units from 31 provinces (regions, municipalities). There was one volunteer recruited from the public in each province to participate in the whole process of post enumeration quality check and to fully play the role of supervision.

 

II. Major Data of the Census

 

1. Units. At the end of 2018, there were 21.789 million legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries, an increase of 10.932 million or up by 100.7 percent compared with that at the end of 2013 (2013 was the year for the Third National Economic Census); 24.550 million establishments, an increase of 11.515 million or up by 88.3 percent; and 62.959 million self-employed.

 

The top three sectors in terms of the number of legal entities were: wholesale and retail trade 6.499 million, taking up 29.8 percent; manufacturing 3.270 million, taking up 15.0 percent; and leasing and business services 2.551 million, accounting for 11.7 percent.

 

In terms of regions, there were 12.802 million legal entities in the eastern areas, accounting for 58.8 percent of the total; there were 4.929 million in the central areas, accounting for 22.6 percent; and 4.058 million were in the western areas, accounting for 18.6 percent.

 

In terms of institutional types, there were 18.570 million corporate enterprises, taking up 85.2 percent of the total, an increase of 10.362 million over that at the end of 2013, up by 126.2 percent; government agencies and institutions 1.075 million, accounting for 4.9 percent; social organizations 305 thousand, accounting for 1.4 percent; other leagl entities 1.839 million, accounting for 8.4 percent. Among the corporate enterprises, there were 18.348 million domestic funded enterprises, accounting for 98.8 percent; 119 thousand enterprises funded by investors from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, accounting for 0.6 percent; and 103 thousand foreign funded enterprises, accounting for 0.6 percent. Of the domestic funded enterprises, there were 72 thousand state-owned enterprises, accounting for 0.4 percent of all corporate enterprises, and 15.614 million private enterprises, accounting for 84.1 percent.

 

2. Persons Employed. At the end of 2018, there were 383.236 million persons employed by legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries, an increase of 27.213 million or up by 7.6 percent compared with that at the end of 2013; of the total, 144.467 million were female employees, accounting for 37.7 percent. There were 172.558 million persons in the secondary industries, a drop of 20.050 million or down by 10.4 percent. There were 210.677 million persons in the tertiary industries, an increase of 47.262 million or up by 28.9 percent. About 149.312 million persons were employed by self-employed units.

 

The top three sectors in terms of persons employed by legal entities were: manufacturing 104.713 million, taking up 27.3 percent; construction 58.091 million, taking up 15.2 percent; and wholesale and retail trade 40.085 million, taking up 10.5 percent.

 

In terms of regions, there were 216.210 million persons employed by legal entities in the eastern areas, accounting for 56.4 percent of the total; there were 93.092 million in the central areas, accounting for 24.3 percent; and 73.934 million were in the western areas, accounting for 19.3 percent.

 

3. Assets, Liabilities and Business Revenue. In terms of assets, at the end of 2018, the total assets of legal entities engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries were 914.2 trillion yuan, among which, that of the secondary industries accounted for 19.0 percent and that of the tertiary industries accounted for 81.0 percent. In terms of liabilities, the total liabilities of legal entities in the secondary and tertiary industries were 624.0 trillion yuan, among which, that of the secondary industries accounted for 16.1 percent and that of the tertiary industries accounted for 83.9 percent. In terms of business revenue, in 2018, the business revenue from corporate enterprises engaged in the secondary and tertiary industries were 294.6 trillion yuan, among which, that of the secondary industries accounted for 48.8 percent and that of the tertiary industries accounted for 51.2 percent.

 

4. Development of Emerging Industries. In terms of strategic emerging industries, at the end of 2018, there were 66,214 industrial corporate enterprises above the designated size engaged in strategic emerging industries, accounting for 17.7 percent of all industrial corporate enterprises above the designated size. In terms of high technology manufacturing, at the end of 2018, there were 33,573 high technology manufacturing corporate enterprises above the designated size, an increase of 24.8 percent compared with that at the end of 2013. In terms of R&D investment, in 2018, the research and experimental development (R&D) expenditure by high technology manufacturing corporate enterprises above the designated size was 355.91 billion yuan, an increase of 75.0 percent compared with that in 2013. The ratio of R&D expenditure to business revenue was 2.27 percent. In terms of culture and related industries, at the end of 2018, there were 2.103 million legal entities engaged in culture and related industries, up by 129.0 percent compared with that at the end of 2013. The total number of persons employed reached 20.558 million, up by 16.8 percent over the end of 2013. The total assets reached 22.6 trillion yuan, up by 118.3 percent compared with that at the end of 2013.

 

Generally speaking, the fourth national economic census helped China get a full picture of the secondary and tertiary industries, reflecting the status of economic and social development in a systematic way. With voluminous data, the census conducted a high quality “physical inspection” for the national economy. We will make good use of the census data together with relevant stakeholders and promote data sharing, so as to ensure the outcomes are from the people and for the people. We will make the most of the census results to provide strong statistical support to high quality development.

 

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