Today has been designated National Census Day and the exercise will be conducted at a cost of some US$4M. Yesterday Census Day was officially launched by Finance Minister Dr. Ashni Singh during a press briefing at the Regency Hotel, Hadfield Street. The census began at midnight.It will be conducted during the evenings when most people are expected to be at home.Dr. Singh lauded the effort of the Guyana National Bureau of Standards for this venture. The Finance Minister on the occasion stressed the importance of a census noting that it is critical for future planning for any country.“The national census is an extremely important exercise not only in Guyana but in countries around the world because the data that are gathered,Wholesale NFL Jerseys, complied and analyze in reports that emerge provides the most valuable source of information for decision making by all of the key stakeholders in our country.”The Minister pointed out that it is easy to believe that a census only generates data relevant for governmental purpose.“It is important to any government but it is equally important as it generates data for decision making for all sector…for government we have endeavored to ground our policy making functions in as much data as we possibly can gather through these exercises,” Dr. Singh stated.He added that the census generates data that are important for decision making by a multitude of other parties, including the business sector which actively utilise the data in their own day to day activities. He added that many business people use the census data to help them make investment and other types of decisions.The Finance Minister further explained that exercises like the national census and surveys produce data that tell about changing population and demographic trends, key indicators in society such as housing, and access to water, health and education.“That indicator set then informs decision making…simple things like the changing gender demographic or the geographic dispersion of our population or the changing age distribution of our population, will inform decision making, it is where one sees the most rapidly growing population that one has to plan for delivery of services”John Mensah, CARICOM’s Regional Census Coordinator, pointed out that in support of statistics in countries,Cheap Jerseys Wholesale, the Secretariat will receive funding from partners such as the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), whilst other agencies work along with the Secretariat to build capacity in countries with the aim of producing statistics required for policy formulation and the strengthening of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).“All member-states are participating in this activity… 16 countries conducted this exercise in 2010 and 2011…Guyana is among four countries conducting census enumeration in 2012 in the region…the other countries are Turks and Caicos,Cheap NHL Adidas Jerseys, Suriname and St. Vincent and the Grenadines…Haiti is yet to conduct its census enumeration,” Mensah said.He explained that since 2005, the Secretariat, in an effort to provide support, initiated the first phase in a programme of work that was designed to assist member countries of the community in the preparation for the conduct of the census.Lennox Benjamin, Chief Statistician of the Bureau of Statistics said that his staff of 92 persons is all geared for a huge tasked ahead being on the threshold of commencing field activities for census 2012.“There is no other single event in the country, either economic social or otherwise, that has the type of magnitude that a national census entails,” Benjamin said.Benjamin added that in terms of the concept of a census, it is the only exercise that sees every building within the borders of a country being visited, all activities recorded, all inhabitants of those buildings recorded and enumerated,Jerseys NFL Wholesale, all being done within a single space of time.Given the number of foreign born people in the country,NFL Jerseys Supply, Mr Benjamin said that the census would provide information on whether there is need for the country to be bilingual.The last population Census in Guyana was done in 2002. Over the next six weeks census officers will visit homes to interview occupants. Members of a household along with its visitors,Nike Tns Wholesale, who spend the census night at that household in Guyana, will be counted, along with foreign embassy staff and their dependents.The census exercise excludes accredited diplomatic personnel and Guyanese nationals accredited to foreign embassies and their family members who reside with them overseas, and Guyanese migrant wo