About the National Statistics Office (NSO) of Viet Nam

Currently, the National Statistics Office is an agency under the umbrella of the Ministry of Finance, a national statistics agency, performing the functions of advising and assisting the Minister of Finance in state management of statistics; organizing the implementation of statistical activities; coordinating statistical activities and providing socio-economic statistical information to the Party, the Government, the Prime Minister, ministries, sectors, localities and other agencies, organizations and individuals in accordance with the provisions of the law; playing the central role in connecting, integrating and consistently managing the national statistical database; forecasting and developing short-term, medium-term and long-term macroeconomic scenarios. The National Statistics Office is a three-tier organized model, from central to local levels: the National Statistics Office at the central level, consisting of 13 administrative units and 4 public service delivery units; 63 Statistics Offices in provinces and municipalities (generally referred to as Provincial Statistics Offices) under the umbrella of the National Statistics Office, equivalent to 63 provincial-level administrative units; and  480 District-level Statistics Teams under the Provincial Statistics Offices.

After two third of a century of formation and development, the Viet Nam Statistics sector has affirmed its important role in providing statistical information to the leaders of the Party, the State and the authorities at all levels to assess and forecast the situation, plan strategies and policies, build socio-economic development plans as well as meet the statistical information needs of organizations and individuals. The statistical information published and provided by the National Statistics Office is a legally-valid official information source, trusted and used by authorities at all levels, sectors, international and domestic organizations and individuals.

On May 6, 1946, President Ho Chi Minh signed Decree No. 61/SL establishing the Viet Nam Statistics Bureau within the Ministry of National Economics – the predecessor of the Statistics sector and the National Statistics Office today. The May 6 is recognised the yearly traditional day of the Viet Nam Statistics Sector.

In recent “Doi Moi” years, the statistical work in Viet Nam has made new developments, achieved many results and progress in all aspects: The legal environment for statistical work has been strengthened, the Statistics Law and documents guiding the implementation of the Statistics Law have been issued and taken positive effects; The system of State statistical organizations has continuously enhanced and improved; Statistical methodologies have been gradually innovated and successfully applied in line with the international standards; Modern technology in data processing and information transmission has been increasingly applied; Statistical information dissemination activities have been gradually innovated with diverse forms; International cooperation activities in statistics have also achieved many results such as actively and proactively integrating and participating in the international statistical activities, etc. Thereby, the position of Viet Nam Statistics has gradually been raised in the region and over the world.

However, to better meet the requirements of integration and development, the Viet Nam Statistics sector is in need to make important innovations. On November 12, 2021, the National Assembly issued the Law amending and supplementing a number of articles and appendices to the list of national statistical indicators of the Statistics Law No. 01/2021/QH15; Decision No. 2014/QD-TTg dated on December 1, 2021 approving the Viet Nam Statistical Development Strategy for the period 2021-2030, vision to 2045; Decision No. 288/QD-TTg dated on February 28, 2022 promulgating the Evaluation Framework for the implementation of socio-economic development goals. Notably, at the 78^th Session of ESCAP held in Bangkok, Thailand, on May 24, 2022, the General Statistics Office of Viet Nam was elected by ESCAP member countries to the Governing Council of the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific. These important milestones are bases for Viet Nam Statistics sector to continuously enhance its capacity, develop more strongly and intensively in the process of integration with world statistics, especially to respond and increasingly better fulfill the political tasks assigned by the Party and the State with the goal: “Viet Nam Statistics develops rapidly and sustainably on the basis of improving the organization system, ensuring sufficient quantity and advancing the quality of human resources, synchronously applying advanced statistical methods and increasing the use of modern technology; Forming a centralized, unified, smooth and effective national statistical information system with increasingly comprehensive information quantity and high information quality; striving for Viet Nam Statistics to reach a fairly good level by 2020 and an advanced level by 2030 in the region.”