The National Statistics Office will officially launch the conduct of Census of Philippine Business and Industry (CPBI) on June 23, 2000 at Sulo Hotel in Quezon City. A seminar workshop to be participated in by representatives of various government agencies has been scheduled in the morning, while a forum with private business associations will be conducted in the afternoon.

The CPBI collects and compiles statistics from establisments pertaining to their economic activities in the Philippines. Data that will be generated from the undertaking are bases for planning, policy formulation and decision-making by government leaders. The private sector makes use of the information derived from the census for business decisions and investments.

The NSO will be spearheading the conduct of the census during the whole month of August. Prior to the census, a nationwide listing of establishments is being compiled by the NSO annually for purposes of identifying the establishments to be covered. For the 2000 CPBI, there will be 60,000 establishments to be covered who are engaged in various economic activites such as agriculture, fishing, mining and quarrying, manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail trades, transportation and communications, real state, health, and other community, social and personal services. Specific information to be gathered includes, among others, legal organization, capital, employment and compensation, revenues, fixed assets, capital expenditures and inventories. The NSO, however, assures the public that the data it will collect shall be held in strict confidentiality as provided for in Section 4 of Commonwealth Act No. 591. Individual responses will be summarized into statistical tables at national, regional and provincial levels to provide substantive snapshots of sectoral structures and trends and will not in anyway be used as evidence in court.