Agricultural and economic censuses to promote Lao growth

Representatives from relevant government departments, international organisations and development partners gathered for a meeting in Vientiane yesterday to learn about the requirements, work plan and contributions for conducting LCA III and EC III across the country. The meeting was chaired by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Mr Somdy Duangdy, and attended bytheMinisterofAgriculture and Forestry, Dr Lien Thikeo.

Field activities of LCA III will start at the beginning of 2020, and census results will be collated by the end of next year, Deputy Head of the Lao Statistics Bureau (LSB) and also Head of the Agriculture Census Office, Ms Phetsamone Sone, said at the meeting. “According to the census work plan, we are now preparing for the sample survey, especially data entry, cleaning and editing,” she said. For the sample survey, a three-week training programme will be conducted in February-March next year, and the survey activities will be carried out in March-April. Officials are also considering the use of satellite image captures, Ms Phetsamone said. Analysis and data dissemination, especially data processing, analysis and dissemination of preliminary results, will be done in June- July, while data processing, analysis and distribution of the final results will be done between June and December.

The government has currently approved some funding to conduct the census, but the project requires more contributions in terms of finance, technical matters and equipment from international organisations and development partners. The survey’s findings would be used as an essential reference by policymakers in evaluating the success of the next five-year national socio-economic development plan, Mr Somdy said. The census will collect information from all production units, private households and collective households in almost 10,000 villages across Laos.

The government views agriculture as an essential pillar of the economy. Although the sector’s contribution to the economy is shrinking, it employs a majority of the Lao population. The upgrade of agricultural production and the modernisation of this sector will result in raising millions of Lao people above the poverty line. “The government sees this census as a major responsibility and an important task, and has approved Higher funding when compared to the previous census,” Mr Somdy said. The Lao Census of Agriculture is conducted every 10 years, and the first one was carried out in 1988/99 and second in 2010/11. The Lao Economic Census is also conducted every 10 years, with the first in 2006 covering 137,357 economic units and the second in 2013 including 134,577 economic units. The latest census is expected to cover 103,820 economic units with more than 10 workers, and a sampling selection will be carried out for those with less than 10 workers.

Information source: Vientiane Times.