Beijingers appear to be less than happy about the ongoing first National Economic Census.

So far 345,000 units, companies, public organizations and private businesses -- 40 percent of the total -- have been visited by census takers since August 1, says Cui Shuqiang, director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Statistics.

The job is done by some 50,000 surveyors throughout the capital city.

But Cui said some central departments and organs of the local governments are not cooperative. Some private firms and business people have also refused to respond to the census. Some census workers have even been abused while trying to carry out their work.

Some census targets have said that they will not report income or balance sheet status to any person who comes knocking on the door.

On average, census workers must visit one work unit three to five times to complete one form.

Vice Mayor Zhang Mao said on Tuesday that answering the census is a legal obligation for individuals and business. All 50,000 census workers have been guaranteed personal safety, he stated.

The Beijing census will be finished by the end of this month. Statistics will be compiled in September and selected reexaminations conducted, according to the leading group of the Beijing municipal government for the first National Economic Census. It has vowed that the margin of error will be less one in 5,000.

Other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions will start their work on the census in the latter half of August or in September.

(China Daily August 11, 2004)