Census of industries from January 26

The Federal Government has decided to conduct a census of industries across the country including economic, environmental and infrastructural aspects, well informed sources in Ministry of Industries and Production (MoI&P) told Business Recorder. The census planned by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) will start from January 26, 2017. Federal departments, provincial governments and FPCCI would play their role in execution of the census.
Giving the background of this exercise, the sources said that in continuation of the coordination meeting of Census of Manufacturing Industries (CMI) 2015-16, Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) held joint meetings on December 15, 2016 in Punjab, December 27, 2016 in KPK, January 3,2017 in Sindh and January 4, 2017 in Balochistan with all stakeholders which include Provincial Secretary Industries, Director/ DG Industries Department, Director/ DG Bureau of Statistics, Director/ DG Labour Departments, Industrial Zone management and representatives of Chamber of Commerce.
All the stakeholders have agreed on the following CMI 2015-16 implementation strategy: (i) Provincial Secretary Industries will lead the CMI 2015-16 operations with a single objective: to retrieve the filled in questionnaire from all industries in the provinces. However, the CEO Urban Unit in Punjab, DG Bureau of Statistics in Sindh, Additional Secretary Industries in KPK and Additional Secretary Industries in Balochistan are the operational focal persons in their respective provinces; (ii) the field operation responsibility is assigned to Urban Unit in Punjab, BoS in Sindh, BoS in KPK, Labour Department in KPK and PBS industry/ BR section in Islamabad. The field operations include allocation of staff/ supervisors/ enumerators) and by hand distribution/ retrieval of questionnaire along with geo-tagging of industries in Punjab only. The field operation progress will be shared with PBS on fortnightly basis and the filled in questionnaire in original will be sent to Industry Statistics Section PBS, Islamabad on monthly basis after checking by respective supervisors.
According to the PBS, for execution of CMI-2015-16, financial assistance/ honoraria (up to Rs 600 per filled in questionnaire) for carrying out the field activities. The sources said that a letter of compliance from Secretary Industries and a letter of cooperation from the President, Federation of Pakistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FPCCI) will also be provided to enumerators to retrieve the filled in questionnaire on time.
According to sources, Federation of Chambers and all concern provincial chambers, Associations and zone managements will nominate their representatives for conflict resolution and monitoring committees in each Industrial Zone/ States Authority. The conflict resolution and monitoring committees will also include industry officers, labour inspectors and BoS officers.
The PBS has started trainings as per schedule, from January 16, 2017 in each province. In this regard 35,000 questionnaires covering the economic, environmental and infrastructural aspects of industries are already printed and the field operation will start from January 26, 2017. Further, a two page questionnaire about management practices will also be supplemented with the main questionnaire.
The FPCCI will arrange seminars in provincial headquarters as part of awareness campaign.
Commenting on the census of manufacturing industries, one private sector stakeholder appreciated the government's decision to take a census of industries but maintained that it may be the result of the Supreme Court's directive to the government to hold the national census.