NBS to use Internet to make more data public

The National Bureau of Statistics is planning to use the Internet to release more of its findings and open certain procedures of data analysis to the public, the top Chinese statistics official said on Thursday.

The bureau will move faster to improve the country's national statistical system, Ma Jiantang, the bureau chief, said at a ceremony held to mark the third "China Statistical Open Day".

"Starting next year, we will conduct surveys about the wages of staff members and managers who fall into five different categories, including one for top leaders and one for front-line workers," Ma said.

Since 2010, the National Bureau of Statistics has persuaded more people to take part in its wage surveys. Also including in the calculations have been the average wages paid at private businesses, State-owned corporations and public institutions.

The bureau, to improve the quality of its statistics, is also trying to make a better use of the massive amounts of data provided by Internet sites, such as online-shopping websites.

Two years ago, the bureau began disclosing its analysis methods and standards, as well as publishing regular seasonal and monthly data. It is also considering discussing its survey designs with the public before it starts to collect basic data.

"China Statistical Open Day" was first held on Sept 20, 2010. It has been a way for the public to understand statistical knowledge and learn about the bureau's basic work.

About 100 people, including university scholars, students and business staff members, have been invited to the bureau's offices to see its statistics library and telephone-counseling room, as well as present questions to statistical officials.

Guan Qiang, vice-president of the Caishikou Department Store in Beijing, said the innovations made this year to the statistical system have improved the quality of the bureau's information and lightened corporations' data-reporting responsibilities.

February saw the start of a new online data-reporting system. About 700,000 companies in the industrial, retail, and real estate sectors, which together contribute about 80 percent of the nation's GDP, were required to use the Internet to submit data directly to the bureau's headquarters

"The data from January to August have all been collected and reported using the new system, and it is running steadily," Li Qiang, deputy head of the National Bureau of Statistics, said on Thursday.

That system has made it difficult to manipulate basic data before they are sent to the statistics bureau's headquarters, thus simplifying data-reporting procedures and helping to keep statistical information from being inflated, the bureau official said.

"More high technology can be used in the statistical data-producing process, such as remote-sensing technology, geographic information systems and cloud-computing technology, which can help innovations to occur more quickly in Chinese statistical work," said Pan Yaozhong, a professor with Beijing Normal University's resource institute.