The National Statistical Office is embarking on decentralizing its data collection activities in the provinces to enhance data collection, which has been a challenge to NSO.
Driving this initiative forward, NSO is developing training programs and as such, a price statistics refresher workshop is currently underway in Lae, Morobe Province, for its 22 price collectors from the 22 provinces.
Consumer Price Index is fundamental as it indicates the purchasing power of the Kina.
It is used to formulate policies and aids the government to make informed decisions that affect the lives of people.
The price collection workshop will provide the provincial statistical officers with an opportunity to share key achievements, learn from discussions on common challenges and offer opportunities for cooperation going forward.
Therefore it is critical that these price collectors are adequately equipped with the knowledge and skills to enable accurate data collection for the production of Consumer Price Index.
“You are as important as the data you collect,” National Statistician Roko Koloma encouraged the price collectors.
The price collectors were reminded of their roles with the core responsibility of improving price collection in the country.
To produce quality and reliable price statistics, the price collectors were challenged to collect prices of goods and services in a proper manner in line with the set standards and methods so that the CPI complied with the prices collected to accurately measure the inflation.
By the end of the workshop, it is anticipated that these price collectors understand the importance of data collection, build capacity, influence skills in managing processes and improve techniques and resources to implement work programs.
The decentralization of data collection is part of NSO’s Reform Road map for 2015-2019.