According to Guangzhou Statistics Bureau, Guangzhou started undertaking the fourth national economic census on the first day of 2019. This compulsory survey, which is set to last four months, will cover all businesses involved in secondary and tertiary industries.

Regarding respondents of the survey, all large enterprises or small and medium enterprises (SMEs), state-owned enterprises and private enterprises are required to take part in this census. New industries such as smart device manufacturing, Internet platform service and entrepreneurial service must also take part in the survey.

Data on the enterprise's structure, staff wages, financial status, production capacity, energy consumption and research and development activities will be collected.

In order to get a clear picture of the city's economy, Guangzhou began laying the groundwork for the survey in May 2018. Last year, the city organised the pilots, plan, survey area, personnel selection and training for the census, said Feng Jun, deputy director of Guangzhou Statistics Bureau.

The city is divided into 2,729 census districts with almost 18,000 census instructors and statisticians. The census will cover about 1.6 million respondents, who now need to get their business documents, accounting data and other related materials ready.

Different tools are being used to facilitate the census work. The data collection has adopts the method of online filing, on-site investigation and self-declaration.

China has previously implemented three such national economic censuses, conducted in 2004, 2008 and 2013.

Reported by Simon

Edited by Will