A general view shows building and property developments in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on October 22, 2021. Photo: AFP

Cambodia launched its second decennial economic census on Tuesday to update basic statistics on business establishments and enterprises in the Southeast Asian nation.

"The census kicked off this morning on March 1 and will run until March 31," Hang Lina, Director-General of the Ministry of Planning's National Institute of Statistics, told Xinhua.

Some 6,000 census officers have been deployed across the kingdom to collect fundamental data on the current status of businesses and the number of their employees, she said, adding that the census results are expected to be released in the first half of 2023.

"It is estimated that there are between 700,000 and 800,000 business establishments [in the new census]," Lina said.

Cambodian Prime Minister Samdech Techo Hun Sen last week called on the owners of companies, factories and various enterprises to participate in the once-in-a-decade economic census, saying that its results would serve as an important factor for formulating policies for socio-economic development, environment, culture and people's well-being, among others.

"The census is an essential indicator for monitoring the implementation of the government's socio-economic development policies, the fourth phase of the Rectangular Strategy and other policies," he said in a statement.

"It will also reflect the impact caused by the spread of COVID-19 on the economic establishments, which are the catalyst for boosting Cambodia's economic growth," Hun Sen said. "The data from this economic census will be widely used in both public and private sectors."

Cambodia conducted its first economic census in 2011, which found that the country had 505,134 business establishments employing 1.67 million people. Of them, 61 percent were female.

Xinhua