Business Desk :
The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) should remain updated, deliver data on time and keep an eye on the foreign survey to ensure global branding of the country, State Minister for Planning Shamsul Alam said on Sunday.
“We should not ignore the foreign indicators. Although we often disagree with them (foreign institutions) about their data collection process, but those surveys or indicators are important for global branding.”
He spoke at a programme at the BBS’s headquarters to observe the National Statistics Day-2022.
As a government agency, the BBS should closely monitor the international surveys or indicators, he said.
“If there is any difference in the data provided by the state agency and international surveys, you (BBS) must reduce the disparity by providing accurate data.”
If the BBS delivers accurate data, then the difference will reduce automatically, he said, adding: “Otherwise the results will conflict.”
The information provided by the state agency should reflect the actual situation, he said.
Sometimes wrong information creates embarrassing situation for the administration, the state minister said.
“Information should be accurate and information should be treated as information. Otherwise, it creates confusion and does more harm than good.”
The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the process to conduct the population census, Planning Minister MA Mannan said at the programme.
“We are taking some time to present a more acceptable and transparent census data. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has also told us to take time and prepare it well. We may start our census work in April,” Mannan added.
Statistics and Informatics Division Secretary Shahnaz Aferin and Director General of BBS Mohammad Tajul Islam were also present.
