VN strives to improve its trade statistics for Asean

This is part of a plan for Vietnam’s integration into the Asean Statistics system in the 2016-20 period, as approved by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

According to the plan’s general targets towards 2020, Vietnam’s statistics system will integrate comprehensively with the Asean system. Vietnam’s system will also meet the basic requirements of the regional system and will become one of the developed statistics systems in Asean.

To achieve these targets, Vietnam will establish a mechanism to provide and share information among domestic statistics agencies and organisations by 2016. Vietnam’s General Statistics Office (GSO), under the Planning and Investment Ministry, will provide Vietnam’s statistical data to the Asean statistics system.

By 2020, Vietnam Statistics will meet 90 per cent of the demand for figures by the Asean statistics system and the activities and figures of the Asean system will become popular in Vietnam, the chinhphu.vn website said.

The plan obliges Vietnam to complete the legal framework, develop the workforce and the quality of staff in the statistics system, set up statistics organisations and promote application of information technology in statistical activities.

Meanwhile, the main functions of the Asean Statistics system include the development of regional indicators, data frameworks and systems for monitoring the Asean community’s goals and initiatives, according to Asean.org.

The functions also include compilation, consolidation, dissemination and communication of statistical information on the Asean region and its member countries.

To carry out these functions, Asean Statistics will mobilise national statistical systems and institutions in its member states and assist in building their relevant statistical capacities.

It will also monitor and evaluate the implementation of programmes and activities on Asean statistical cooperation.

GSO deputy director Nguyen Van Lieu said measures, staff and IT were the three key factors of a national statistics agency. IT will be applied for many statistical activities such as collection, processing, analysis and forecast.

The system needs a general strategy for developing IT, such as regulations on the management and operation of the system, IT infrastructure, database and a skilled IT workforce.

Over the past few years, Vietnam’s statistics sector has promoted the application of IT in its activities, such as a project on the modernisation of the statistics office and the development of a wide-area network (WAN), connecting the GSO with its offices in 63 cities and provinces.

The statistics of Vietnam in all sectors, such as industry, agriculture, trade and prices, as well as population, social affairs and the environment, have been processed with the software, Lieu said.

However, Vietnam does not have a national statistics database that is synchronised and unified, because the management of data and information is done spontaneously in state offices, he said.