Mr. Frederick W H HO Was Retained as the Statistical Advisor of NBS

In the morning on September 8th, Mr. Xie Fuzhan, Commissioner of NBS, issued the letter of appointment to Prof. Frederick W H HO, who was the former Commissioner of the Census and Statistics Department of Hong Kong SAR and the Honorary Professor of Hong Kong University, retained him as the statistical advisor of NBS, and the period of employment was three years. The ceremony was presided by Mr. Lin Xianyu, Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Xu Xianchun, Deputy Commissioner, and other relevant staffs of NBS were attended.

Mr. Xie Fuzhan addressed on the ceremony. He pointed out that: nowadays, China is in the crucial period of perfecting socialist market economy system, the central government announced the requirement on perfect the statistical system , set up a statistical system which according to the situation of China, and obey the general rules of international statistics . According to the requirements proposed by the central government, statistical work kept developing and made a great progress; simultaneity, due to faced with the tremendous challenges and burdensome tasks, we should summarize the experiences seriously and make great efforts on exploration continually. Moreover, further study and use the advanced fruits of international statistical work experiences for reference, enhanced the intercommunication and cooperation with foreign countries was one of the important way for boosting development of China s statistical work. Since 2000, NBS has invited Ms. Carson, the former Director of Statistical Department of IMF, Mr. Liu Zunyi, the former Economics Professor of StanfordUniversity as the statistical advisors. The facts showed that it was very successful; the statistical advisors have not only brought the latest successful experiences and methods to us, but also given many precious ideas and suggestions for China s statistical construction, development and reform. Moreover, the most important thing was that the statistical advisors took great effects on enlarging China s statistical international intercommunication and cooperation, and propagandized the fruits of China s statistical work by their prestige in the international statistical circle.

Commissioner Xie Fuzhan said, Prof. Ho was well-known in the international statistical circle, provided with abundant official statistical experiences, and had special accomplishments in national accounts, price statistics, sampling survey and statistical manage, and etc.. With his profound acknowledge, scientific attitude, abundant experiences and acuminous insight, Prof. Ho will qualify the role of the statistical advisor all to a certainty. In the meantime, Commissioner Xie expected that the statistical advisor would help China enhance the prestige in the international statistical circle, strengthened international intercommunication and cooperation, developed the scope of statistical work, kept boosting the reform and development of national statistics, and provided qualified services for China s national economy and social development.

After the ceremony, Prof. Ho expressed his impressions on designated to fill position in NBS and give a specific lecture of Hong Kong s Consumer Price Indices, then he had a thorough intercourse of hotspot issues in statistical domain with the representatives from all the departments of NBS.

Before the ceremony, Commissioner Xie Fuzhan, Deputy Commissioner Lin Xianyu, Xu Xianchun had a meeting with Prof. Ho, and they had an informal discussion. Mr. Du Weiqun, Acting Director-General of Department of International Cooperation, Mr. Huang Langhui, Director-General of InternationalStatisticalInformationCenter, also attended the meeting.