Forecasts, Management, and Long-Range Considerations

When the current economic readjustment is completed, is it feasible for the provinces and municipalities that have the ability to begin conducting research on economic forecasts? We failed in the past to treat economic forecast as a branch of science. This is one of the primary reasons why we were unable to carry out our economic work with great precision. Can we start now to build step by step such a forecast system? We would suggest that some provinces and municipalities begin to forecast the economic events that may occur in the provinces and municipalities after the implementation of the economic readjustment. Such scientific inferences can only be looked upon today, in terms of the prevailing state of the art, as experiments. We should not expect nor demand too much of such experiments. The purpose of forecasting at this juncture is merely to learn through practice. Once the forecast work is started, however, it is viable that through continuous practice and incessantly acquiring experience, a permanent forecasting work force will be gradually built. When a forecast network is set up in all provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, it will provide the leadership of both local governments and the national government with a powerful instrument for conducting economic policy.