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HANOI, October 20, 2005 – In an effort to better support the upcoming Socio-Economic Development Plan (SEDP) and the monitoring of its implementation, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) will work with Viet Nam’s General Statistics Office (GSO) and the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) to improve the collection, storage, overall quality and wider use of statistics in Viet Nam.
With the support of the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development (DFID), this three-year, $2.56 million project aims to improve all areas of data collection in Viet Nam and to strengthen Viet Nam’s ability to monitor its commitments in the SEDP, Viet Nam Development Goals (VDGs) and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
“If the new five-year-plan is to deliver to the poor, it must be based on information that Government can trust,” said UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, Jordan Ryan at the project signing ceremony. “The socio-economic plan for 2006-2010 will focus on social development more than ever before. This project aims to support GSO and the statistical agencies in other ministries to coordinate and provide more reliable indicators and to better monitor how Viet Nam is progressing toward achieving its socio-economic objectives, including the MDGs.”
With the introduction of the Statistical Law in 2004, GSO has taken on an increasingly important role in coordinating the national statistical system and providing technical assistance to government agencies. The next five-year-plan is required to include more targets and indicators on social development and these targets could lead to greater promotion of the quality of growth, human and sustainable development.
“GSO has an important role to provide precise, timely and objective information to all levels of government,” said Director General of GSO, Le Manh Hung. “We are reforming the GSO so that we can fill the demand for statistics that meet international standards, while making statistics more available to local communities to increase their participation in the planning and implementation of the five-year plans.”
By providing better statistical data, monitoring will be greatly improved and links to government planning will be encouraged among government ministries at all levels, through more frequent and structured dialogue between those who use the data, and those who produce it.
For further information, please contact:
Nguyen Viet Lan, UNDP Media and Publications Unit
(84-4) 942-1495 ext.186 nguyen.viet.lan@undp.org
Junichi Imai, Poverty and Social Development, UNDP
(84-4) 942-1495 ext.283 junichi.imai@undp.org