22nd Meeting of the Wiesbaden Group on Business Registers

– International Roundtable on Business Survey Frames

Tallinn, 27 – 30 September 2010
Yang Kuankuan
Shen Na
Du Dejun
National Bureau of Statistics of China
China
Session No 8
Business Registers and Business Statistics in Developing Countries
BR Initiative Improvement in China

1. Current situations of unit management system in China

Main types of the units

In china there are two types units according statistical definition. One is legal unit and other is establishment. The legal unit is usually divided by enterprises, institutional units, government agencies, social organizations, non-governmental non-profit units, foundations, residents committee and villagers committees, other organizations. Establishment is often divided by single establishments and multi-establishment. End of 2009 the number of legal unit and establishment of BR is followed in table 1.

Table 1 Number of Legal Unit and Establishment in 2009

Types of Units / Population
(unit) / Proportion
(%)
Legal Units / 8,003,872 / 100
Enterprises / 5,782,827 / 72.25
Institutional Units / 730,169 / 9.12
Government Agencies / 251,022 / 3.14
Social Organizations / 199,293 / 2.49
Non-Governmental non-Profit units / 162,398 / 2.03
Foundations / 901 / 0.01
Residents Committees / 81,494 / 1.02
Villagers Committees / 608,753 / 7.61
Others / 187,011 / 2.34
Establishments / 9,814,995 / 100
Single / 7,604,550 / 77.48
Multi- / 2,210,445 / 22.52

Main Government agencies of registration and management on legal unit

In China various legal units are registration and management by many government agencies. The registrations are decentralized and complicated for their own purposes. The details on units registration are followed as table 2.

Table 2 Units Registration by Government Agencies

Types of Legal Units / Government Agencies of Registration for Units / Remarks
Enterprises / Department of Administration for Industry & commerce (DAIC) / Tax Bureau is also responsible for registrations on enterprises
Institutional units / Office for public Sector Reform (OPSR)
Government Agencies
Social organizations / Department of Civil Affairs (DCA) / Social organization with legal units licenses in DCA
Office for public Sector Reform (OPSR) / Social organization without legal units licenses but putting on records in OPSR
Non-governmental Non-profit Units / Department of Civil Affairs (DCA) / Non-governmental Non-profit Units usually refer to some schools and hospitals financed by privates
Residents Committees
Villagers Committees

Annotation:all legal units must get organization codes from Department of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (DQSIQ).

2. Positive and negative effects of government agencies on units registration and management

On the one hand necessary bureaucracy plays important and positive role in unit registration and management. For example, firstly government agencies could strengthen unit management by registration on huge quantity of units in China. It is benefit for mastering accurate and timely records on units and central and local governments could make macro-decision on basis of such information. In the second place government agencies have enough labor power and financial support to conduct survey, especially in census year the government’s investments could guarantee the data quality. Because in China it is not only to have so many units but also to have gap between regions.

On the other hand there are many disadvantages because of bureaucracy. In the first place in China it often lead to confusion because there are so many departments which are responsible for units registration and management. For example obvious conflict is that they don’t have unified standard on units code , definition and classification. Such situation usually directly result in difficulty on units matching between different departments which are responsible for units registration. In China we usually find that the total number of units is inconformity which are grasped by so many government departments. Such situation has lasted many years and it unavoidable decreases data quality. Secondly the cooperation will of correspondences have declined to a lower extent because many government agencies demand them to supply similar units records again and again. This situation must result that corresponds refuse to fill in survey questionnaire or supply false records. Thirdly it often gives rise to waste of finance and labor because many government departments have rights for units registration and have their respective BR for their own management purpose. Up to now there are no less than 5 BR systems in various departments at national level. This reduplicate building on BR is not only crease administrative management budget but also decrease records quality.

3. Initiatives performed by NBS to improve efficiency in BR registration and management

In China since 2008 CensusCenter has tried our best to improve BR internal and external surroundings aiming to crease data quality.

Firstly CensusCenter had done some change in organization and specially establish division of Business registerin 2009. And we arranged more experts on Business Register to this division.MeanwhileCensusCenter developed a new Business Register system with PC-based and Internet based. And now this data processing system has utilized by four levels from county office to national office.Functions of this BR system are much perfect than before, especially on how to match statistics data with administrative records. In addition We also establish division of GIS and aim to enhance development and utilizing of BR. Now we have conduct some pilot in Beijing and Sichuan province and aim to gradually popularize GIS system at nationwide. GIS will supply more convenient and fast records to governments and public by connection between BR and routinesurvey data and space data.

Secondly In 2009NBS revised former contact(2005) with other administrative agencies( state department of administration and reform for government agency, Ministry of civil affairs, state administration of taxation, State administration for industry and commerce). In this new agreement We demand other four departments supply not only attribute indicators but also financial records on birth, changeable and dead of unit respectively. For example department of taxation will supply financial indicators such as business revenue, taxes and employee number. Department for industry and commerce will supply registered capital.Those information will help us to judge the scale and structure of unit.

Thirdly we are drawing up <Method of management on Business Register> and planning to carry out this method as soon as possible. This method clears the responsibility and divides the work on BR updating and maintenance between department of BR and departments of Subject Matter within NBS. It also makes more details and rules on data sharing between NBS and other administrative agencies which are responsible for units registration. We hope to publish this method by Office of State Council for much better improving data quality of BR and increase work efficiency.

During the past year, Census center developed a new Business Register system with PC-based and Internet based.We had done some pilot on this software system in Shangxi province in 2009 and now this data processing system has utilized by four levels from county office to national office.Functions of this BR system are much perfect than before, especially on how to match statistics data with administrative records.