FUZHOU - China is preparing to set up a national mortality database to obtain cause-of-death information, marking a step toward establishing a monitoring network for health risk factors across the country, an official said Wednesday.

Health departments in provinces are ordered to start collecting data and compiling lists on causes of deaths before the Ministry of Health can link up the provincial databases in 2013, said Meng Qun, an official with the statistics and information center of the ministry.

Meng told a national health workshop in the eastern city of Fuzhou that mortality information is key data for the government to assess public health, draw up policies and arrange resources.

The ministry is considering systems to effectively monitor risks to public health, Meng said, adding that every resident in economically-developed regions and some underdeveloped regions should be able to have a digital health dossier by 2015.