Accurate planning essential for establishment of justice: president
According to a report released by the Presidential Office Media Department, the president said that to enable the government to respond properly to the public demand calls for correct information and multifaceted statistics.
The chief executive said that population and housing census is a major step facilitating access to such information.
"To ensure optimum administration of current affairs and accurate planning, all the ongoing social developments should be constantly recorded and statistical data should be collected and classified on a regular basis.
"Arrangement of comprehensive statistics and information about the country aiming to facilitate and expedite planning based on national demands is highly significant," said the president. Ahmadinejad noted that plans should be updated, given that otherwise they will neither respond to ongoing developments nor solve problems despite the efforts.
Turning to the long 10-year interval in conducting nationwide general census, he said that the government is ready to conduct census every other five years.
He urged that the census law should be revised, given that changes take place quite rapidly, adding that national development plans should also be drawn up in accordance with the current conditions and demands.
At the end of the meeting, he responded to the questions of a census clerk who filled the relevant census questionnaire. Thus President Ahmadinejad was the first Iranian citizen who took part in this year's census.
Prior to the president's speech, Vice President and Head of Management and Planning Organization Farhad Rahbar urged the need to conduct census.
For his part Head of Iran's Statistics Center Mohammad Madad presented a report on the procedure of the upcoming census and the advantages of population and housing census due to be conducted in the current Iranian year (started March 21). The sixth nationwide census is scheduled to begin on Saturday and will continue up to November 17.