Tobago to get economic census in 2020

FOR the first time, according to the Central Statistical Office (CSO), an individual economic census will be conducted in Tobago. It is scheduled for 2020.

An economic census is a directory consisting of statistics of businesses within a country.

Speaking with media on Friday, at its Port of Spain headquarters, the CSO's director of statistics Sean O'Brien said this is being done as Tobago has "unique needs." He said the organisation is working towards strengthening its partnership with the Tobago House of Assembly (THA).

"A lot of the data we collect, we collect it for TT. And some of the designs at present cannot foster separate national data. But because of the idiosyncrasies of the Tobago economic environment, and because the THA is so integrated into the Tobago socio-economic climate, we recognise the need to forge greater partnership with them."

The data collected by the CSO is usually published for TT overall, since it is one country, and not for each island.

O'Brien said the CSO will provide the equipment and infrastructure to conduct the census as the THA is a "major element" of the national statistic system.