As the date of launching the first economic census approaching, a top Chinese census official pledged strict secrecy for data collected from the census to ease fears that the data might be used as court evidence.

"The census is aimed at obtaining accurate data for macro-economic policy decision-making instead of seeking evidence to persecute anyone," said Li Deshui, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) at the on-going national conference on statistics.

The census, scheduled to kick off on Dec. 31, is designed to draw an economic panorama of China's secondary and tertiary industries and complete a database covering all economic sectors.

The census will involve nearly 10 million statisticians and volunteers and could cost billions of yuan.

However, some governmental departments and enterprises refused to cooperate with census officials on fear that they might be punished for having submitted phony figures or evaded tax in the past.

Li assured that the census data would be kept strictly secret in line with international practice, and those who leak the data or use the data as court evidence would be punished.

He appealed to those to be interviewed in the census to provide true and accurate figures, warning that any institutions or individuals doing otherwise would also be punished according to law.

(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2004)