China is to publish its first white paper on statistics so as to make the public savvy the nation's statistic work.

"Due to lack of communications, the public know little about the basic process and work flow of China's statistical work," said Li Deshui, director of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Monday.

"This has even caused suspicion on accuracy of China's statistical data from home and aboard," he said at a national work conference on statistics.

The white paper will elaborate the development process, basic method, current situation, problems and future reform ideas of the country's statistical work, he said, adding that he hopes the white paper could answer most of the questions.

"We consider the criticism from home and abroad an impetus to speed up our statistical reform," said Li while stressing that it also indicated that China's statistical work has attracted more attention worldwide owing to China' s rapid economic development.

He said that NBS has enjoyed good cooperation with their counterparts in Canada and Germany as well as with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. He vowed to learn more from international experience so as to enable China keep abreast with international practice of statistics.

(Xinhua News Agency December 20, 2004)