Pagadian City, Mar. 19 (PIA) – The National Statistics Office (NSO) will start the updating of the List of Establishments (LE) in the country in less than two months.
The LE is a database of all establishments in the Philippines. An establishment is defined as an economic unit, which engages, under a single ownership or control, in one or predominantly one kind of economic activity at a single fixed physical location. As of 2011, the NSO database contains information about 800,000 establishments including employment in 17 geographic regions in the country.
Updating the LE involves the following: (1) capture and listing of the characteristics of “new” establishments; (2) updating of the status and characteristics of “old” establishments or those that have already been included in the database; (3) de-listing of “closed” establishments; and (4) identification of out-of-scope units.
An updated database of establishments will provide the NSO a reliable sampling frame for its business and industry sensuses and surveys. The data that will be collected also serves as (1) guide to government planning, policy making and monitoring, (2) basis of marketing plans, opportunities and prospects, and (3) input to evaluation, market research and comparative studies. Thus, the agency looks forward to the full cooperation and support for the undertaking not only from national and local government agencies but also from the private sector, particularly the business associations.
Starting May 2, 2012, NSO field staff and select trained interviewers will do a comprehensive door-to-door canvassing of establishments. The conduct of relevant training is on-going and will continue until next month.
NSO officials assured their respondents that all information furnished to the NSO will be kept strictly confidential and shall not be used as evidence in court for purposes of taxation, regulation or investigation as provided for in Section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 591.
The NSO, upon request of government and public users, only provides summary information from the LE such as the counts of establishments with disaggregation by industry, by employment size, by region, and by selected area up to the barangay level. (NSO/PIA9/CAL)