The Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), the government agency that collects, processes, analyses and disseminates data, is conducting Economic Census for the first time beginning April 14 to ascertain the number of commercial enterprises and institutions operating in the country and take stock of their contribution to the economy.

This is a large-scale survey which will be conducted throughout the country. A Cabinet meeting held on Friday approved the theme of the questionnaire prepared to carry out the survey. The questionnaire will be published in the Nepal gazette soon, according to CBS Director General Suman Raj Aryal.

The survey will cover all private and state-owned enterprises, cooperatives, non-governmental organisations and other institutions, such as temples, political organisations and branch offices of foreign companies.

The survey, however, will not cover agriculture, fisheries and forestry sectors, as the CBS has been conducting Agriculture Census every 10 years.

The study will also exclude activities of international organisations, including embassies and multilateral institutions, public administration, defence sector, operators of mandatory social security schemes and street vendors. Also, goods and services produced at the household level for self consumption will not be included in the study.

“We will start collecting the data from April 14 to conduct the study,” said Aryal. “We will get preliminary results within September or October.”

Once the census is complete, the country will have a depository of information on enterprises engaged in retail and wholesale trade, construction, real estate, finance, communications, transportation, information technology, hospitality, utilities, health, education and other manufacturing and services sectors.

The survey will also provide information on investment, including foreign, these enterprises have attracted, technologies they have deployed, number of jobs they are creating, products they are manufacturing and revenue they are generating. These findings will shed light on advancement of the industrialisation process in the country.

The findings of the study can be used by all three tiers of the government to formulate appropriate policies and can help assess effectiveness of policies launched till date. The results can also be used by enterprises to compare their performance with

those of others, help researchers conduct further studies and facilitate the government to create a database of commercial enterprises and institutions operating in the country.

The CBS is currently preparing to establish offices in all 77 districts to conduct the study.