Secretary for the Civil Service Patrick Nip today visited the Census & Statistics Department to learn more about the Census Service Centre’s work and show support for colleagues working there.

Mr Nip learnt from an update by Commissioner for Census & Statistics Marion Chan that many people had opted to complete the 2021 Population Census questionnaire online during the COVID-19 epidemic.

While visiting the Census Service Centre, he discovered that his colleagues’ work includes conducting telephone interviews, answering public enquiries and making appointments for face-to-face interviews.

Mr Nip was pleased to learn that simultaneous interpretation services in Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and Nepali are available at the centre for the Pakistanis, Indians and Nepalese people to help ethnic minorities with completing the census questionnaire.

Service centres have also been set up in Yau Tsim Mong, Sham Shui Po and four other districts to provide simultaneous interpretation services for interviewees in need, he noted.

Mr Nip said the population census, conducted once every 10 years, is a large-scale and important statistical exercise that provides vital statistical information for Hong Kong’s future development.

The data collected by thousands of staff are useful to the Government for policy formulation as well as social service and facility planning, he added.

Mr Nip thanked the department’s colleagues for their hard work in conducting a large-scale fieldwork operation under the epidemic and urged the public to support their work.