Numerous enterprises established in the first month of the new year

Vietnam is set to be a promising startup nation.

During the first month of the new year 8,900 enterprises were established with a total registered capital of over VND90 trillion ($3.96 billion). That’s an increase of 8.1 per cent in number and 52.3 per cent in registered capital, according to the latest Socio-economic report from the General Statistics Office.

These newly established enterprises are expected to create 104,100 jobs. That figure is 83.9 per cent more compared to the same period of 2016.

Notably, the number of businesses resuming operations after being temporarily suspended reached 5,564, up 14.2 per cent per cent compared to the same period of 2016.

Arts and entertainment is the most attractive sector with newly established enterprises up 2.4 per cent in number and 658 per cent in registered capital. The next is health and social assistance activities with an increase of 57.6 per cent in number and 455.5 per cent in registered capital.

Although the manufacturing index of the mining sector fell to 13.9 per cent, the number of newly established enterprises rose by 3.4 per cent and registered capital rose by 401.2 per cent.

Meanwhile, the number of enterprises ceasing operations was 1,583, up 18.3 per cent compared to the same period last year, and were mainly small-scale enterprises with capital less than VND10 billion ($440,000).

The number of enterprises temporarily ceasing operations was quite high with 13,289, up 6.7 per cent year-on-year.

Vietnam targets to have at least 1 million by 2020 and the private sector would account for 48-49 per cent of the country’s GDP, according to the Government Resolution No. 35 to support and develop enterprises.

Vietnam embarked on a thorough process of improving its business climate and national competitiveness in 2014, with the issuance of Government Resolution No. 19.

The government is also promoting an entrepreneurial spirit and making Vietnam conducive to establishing startups as part of efforts to develop the private sector, which has been defined as the driver of socio-economic growth.

A law on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is being drafted. There are now more than 500,000 enterprises in Vietnam, of which approximately 97 per cent are SMEs.

by Ngoc Chi / VET