In Pursuit of Ensuring Statistical Governance

KOSTAT Commissioner stresses innovation through vision sharing and brisker communication

Yi In Sill, commissioner of Statistics Korea (KOSTAT), could be summed up as a three-time first ― the first female KOSTAT commissioner, the first civilian-turned-commissioner and the first one from other than the government’s statistical units ― since she took office in May 2009.
In reality, Yi is a holder of an economics doctorate from the University of Minnesota at Twin Cities and has held such positions as professor at Sogang University Economic Graduate School, the chief of the Economic Analysis Division at the National Assembly Budget Office, the chief of the Finance Research Center at the Korea Economic Research Institute and the director of the Financial Survey Team at the Hana Economic Research Institute.
Things have changed since her inauguration. KOSTAT’s upgraded culture of communication and sharing ― vision sharing and improved performance through brisker communication ― has been shaping up. The Staff at the specialized government agency have increased their efforts to strengthen their capability and self-development so as to lead the advancement of state statistics and provide interested parties with useful and reliable statistical information. These efforts have paid off, changing KOSTAT into a more aggressive, lively organization.
“An economics scholar-turned-KOSTAT commissioner, I’ve devoted myself to focusing on the development of demand-oriented statistics. To this end, we’ve been striving to discuss with policy-making authorities, a major stats customer, on what statistics they need or what statistics need to be overhauled and figure out the solutions with state-financed research institutes,” she said.
The following are excerpts of an interview between NewsWorld and the KOSTAT commissioner, who touched on the specifics of the upcoming 2010 Population and Housing Census and other statistical policies.
Question: People say there is a wide gap between price indexes and what they perceive. What are some measures to cope with the discrepancy?
Answer: First, price statistics are determined according to international standards, and international organizations including the IMF recognize the credibility of the stats. The biggest reason for the discrepancy among the general public is that price statistics are based on median measurements, so the data differ from the “subjective figures” people perceive. In other words, price statistics are based on a weighted average according to the importance of price changes of the surveyed items, whereas “perceived” prices are determined by arithmetically averaging some items to which people are related. For instance, an increase in tuition fees causes a difference in parents’ perception of price rise according to whether they have kids or how many they have.
We produce such auxiliary stats as the Consumer Price Index for Living Necessities and the Fresh Food Index to give a better explanation of the reality, and we also announce indexes by items so that each person can individually recognize price indexes of items he or she favors.
The current Consumer Price Index based on items and weights set in 2005, has somewhat failed to reflect a change in consumer patterns and other realities, so we are seeking to revise items and weights on the basis of the year 2010.
Q: Of late, the unemployment rate is the biggest issue. Do you have any plans to innovate the management of unemployment statistics?
A: Questions have been raised on the standards of setting the unemployment rate due to a difference between the announcement of official stats and the ones individuals perceive on the employment situation. KOSTAT produces such job indexes as the employment index and the unemployment index according to identical standards of other countries as recommended by the International Labor Organization (ILO). We now produce and supply such diverse supplementary indexes as the ones on those who have given up job-seeking, are preparing to find jobs and those who want to land additional jobs for fewer than 36 hours per week, so as to give an explanation of the gap between official indexes and individuals’ perceived employment conditions.
KOSTAT plans to seek in-depth discussions, including the gathering of views from related government agencies and experts after taking a cue from practices of advanced countries, including the United States and Canada, and making an additional study into the objectivity and statistical significance of the introduction of a supplementary employment index covering groups with difficulties in finding jobs, which was presented during the state employment strategy meeting convened on Jan. 21.
Q: KOSTAT is to conduct the 2010 Population and Housing Census in October. What’s the significance of conducting the census and its anticipated effects?
A: The Population and Housing Census program surveying the entire population, households and houses across the nation at a given time is a basic state statistical survey conducted every five years.
The 2010 Population and Housing Census focuses on cost-saving, giving consideration to the environment and enhancing accuracy. First, the upcoming census will raise the portion of Internet coverage to 30 percent, or about 5.6 million households, a jump from 0.9 percent, or some 140,000 households, in the 2005 census. Such categories related to the low-carbon, green-growth paradigm as bicycle ownership and the use of mass transportation means are included to assist in designing state policies. Third, in an effort to lessen the burden to respondents and advance accuracy, five surveyed items in the apartment and housing sector will be replaced with administrative data, while married immigrants will be hired as enumerators, and they will be given a checklist in nine foreign languages.
If the upcoming census is carried out successfully, basic data necessary for establishing policies related to low-carbon, green growth, lower birth rate and aging society, multiculturalism and foreign residents will be made available. The housing supply rate, transportation burden rate and funeral population may be estimated and the latest population data can be made available.
Q: Do you have steps in place to enhance the nation’s statistical efficiency?
A: Under decentralisted statistical systems, the duplicated production of stats is feared to cause manpower and budgetary waste. With each government agency producing its own stats there is a danger of putting restraints on the systematic development of statistics and undermining statistical objectivity.
As a result, KOSTAT plans to ensure the governance of state stats so that national data can be developed, managed and utilized from an inter-ministry perspective by strengthening the strong points of statistical concentration for their systematic and efficient development. To this end, we established National Statistical Development Strategy Plan last December. KOSTAT is pushing such strategies as the overhaul of existing similar statistics, the establishment of a statistical production system based on administrative data, the implementation of a registered census and the construction of the general statistical survey system. We posted 2.89 billion won in budgetary savings by integrating industry- and job-specific employment structure surveys and local governments’ regional employment structure surveys.
Q: Will you introduce the National Statistics Committee, which underwent an overhaul last year?
A: The Committee was established in accordance with the Aug. 12, 2008 revision of the Statistics Act to examine and approve responsibilities concerning the production, supply and utilization of statistics. The amendment stipulates a shift in the chairperson of the committee from the KOSTAT commissioner to the minister of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance.
The committee has fewer than 30 committee members, including 10 central government ministers, the KOSTAT commissioner, the heads of the five major institutions, including the Bank of Korea, and commissioned experts from diverse areas.
The committee holds a plenary session and five subcommittee meeting sessions.
Following the reorganization, the committee was convened twice; on Oct. 14, 2009 and June 15, 2010. The plenary sessions of the committee approved the establishment of the National Statistical Development Strategy Plan, and it played leading roles in the development of state statistics by approving ways of advancing real estate and employment statistics.
Q: Will you tell our readers about KOSTAT’s efforts to innovate its work process?
A: As an economics scholar-turned KOSTAT commissioner, I’ve devoted myself to focusing on the development of demand-oriented statistics. To this end, we’ve been striving to discuss with policy-making authorities, a major stats customer, on what stats they need or what stats need to be overhauled and figure out the solutions with state-financed research institutes.
Thanks to this effort, we are now seeking to develop a new employment index designed to measure the quality of employment, which has emerged as one of the biggest issues among us.
I’ve also been working on the development of new stats in the social and welfare sectors, put on the priority list since my inauguration. I plan to provide statistical support for establishing polices tailored to meet the demands of the underprivileged by stepping up the income and spending analyses of the underprivileged, particularly children, women and elderly households.
KOSTAT is developing a multicultural population index, reflecting the rise in multicultural families, which now account for more than 10 percent of newlyweds.
Q: How do you communicate with your staff?
A: I’ve been doing my best in facilitating communication with a vast manpower organization ranging from the head office to on-site enumerators. KOSTAT has undergone a post-merger integration analysis designed to have synergetic effects of chemical integration following the reorganization conducted in February 2009, along with a reset of its corporate identity and vision.
We’ve been accelerating efforts to facilitate communication by collecting and reflecting staffs’ views via diverse channels. In particular, an in-house work system has been improved to help all staff members share information about officers’ work schedules. Diverse voices among the staff are collected via “Hof & Hope Day,” hiking discussions, e-mail exchanges and visits to regional branches and offices to share the staff’s complaints and reflect their suggestions.
Officials with ranks of director or higher, ones in the lower echelons and newcomers with one to three years on staff have held their respective forums on organizational development to share KOSTAT’s vision and discuss ways of promoting organizational overhaul through smooth communication. All staff members have been participating in foot volleyball events that run after work so as to help all departments promote brisker exchanges.
Things have changed since I took office as KOSTAT commissioner. KOSTAT’s upgraded culture of communication and sharing ― vision sharing, improved performance through brisker communication that is desirable for being a government agency ― has been shaping up. The staff at the specialized government agency have expanded their efforts to strengthen their capability and self-development so as to lead the advancement of state statistics and provide interested parties with useful and reliable statistical information. These efforts have paid off, changing KOSTAT into a more aggressive, lively organization. nw

Yi In-sill, commissioner of Statistics Korea (KOSTAT)