Economic Census 2006

Survey preparation
Before the economic census, the registration of primary economic units is an important preparatory stage to gain basic information. The registration was carried on during October to November of 2006.

Registration of surveyed samples
The registration includes primary economic units in every village across the country which can be summarized as follows.

1. Changes of village characteristics during 2005 to 2006: in October 2006 there were 9,928 villages a decrease of 624 villages or 6 percent compared to the population census in March 2005. The provinces that record highest decrease of the number of village are Savannakhet and Huaphan which decreased 17 and 14 percent respectively. On the other hand, Vientiane provinces and Xiengkuang record the increase of number of village mainly due to the reallocation of villages formerly belong is to Saisomboune special zone.
2. There are a total of 209,484 economic units registered. 96,040 economic units or 46 percent are located in the urban area. 87 732 units or 42 percent have their permanent location in the rural village with road access while the remaining 25,712 units or 12 percent are located in the village with no road access.

The majority of the economic units are located in the urban especially in the business area in big provinces. For instance, Vientiane Capital covers 18 percent of total economic units. The other big provinces are Champasack covering 12 percent, Savannakhet covering 9.9% followed by Vientiane province and Luangprabang each covering 9 percent.

The registration shows that 90 percent of primary economic units have permanent location and could be accessed based on the business information such as the geographical location like province, district, village, units, house number and contact telephone number.

Pre-testing the survey
To ensure the success of Lao PDR’s first economic census, the National Statistics Center as the secretary office of the Economic census conducted the trial survey in two locations: Vientiane Capital and Champasack. Based on this, the secretary office of the Economic Census would like to report the findings as follows.
Main objectives of the trial survey are:
o To learn about duration of the survey as to prepare adequate time for the training.
o To learn about the time needed for each interview.
o To review the contents and definitions provide in the manual.
o To assess the understanding of the enumerators on each questions of the questionnaire.
o To examine how the enumerator record the interview.
o To review the continuation and flows of various questions in the questionnaire.
o To review the utility of the list of economic unit for the enumerator.
o To assess the capacity of digital camera, scanner and computer for data analysis.
o To review the evaluation of the findings through digital cameras and scanners.

Advocacy of the economic census
Various promotion programs have been implemented to raise the understanding of the economic units about the objectives and goals of the economic census. The promotions are as follows.

• The survey supervision committee of all levels visited various organizations across the country to raise the understandings of every stage of the economic census such as preparation, training, survey and data compilation and evaluation.
• All kinds of mass media such as newspapers (Pasason, Pathet Lao, Vientiane Times, Vientiane Mai), radio, television and documentary program were used to raise public awareness of the progress of this 1st economic census.
• The T-shirt of the economic census and staff identity cards were produced and disseminated to the supervision committees and the enumerators. In some provinces, the promotion banners were produced and shown in the main roads.

Training
Training was held in order to build the capacity of the staffs at all levels. The training began at the preparation stage on the registration of economic units during September 2006. The training was organized at all levels such as training of trainers and enumerators from central level; training at provincial level which invite staffs from the provincial and municipal districts; and finally training at district level where district and village staffs can attend.

Technical training was organized twice. The first training was held in November 2006 with 98 participants who were trainers and representative of management level from provinces. The second training organized in December 2006 was for 30 participants from line ministries and other concerned organizations.

Local training was also held at two levels. The provincial level training was held at the same period across the country which invited management level staffs from district level. Afterward, the district level officials held district level training for village staffs for 5 days with participants of 4 525 people nationwide.