Number of new businesses down, value up in January

By Anh Minh February 1, 2019 | 06:20 pm PT

Labourers arrange steel structures at a construction site of an office building in Hanoi. Photo by Reuters/Kham

The number of newly incorporated companies fell 7 percent in January, but their value shot up by over 50 percent.

January saw the registration of 10,079 new enterprises with total registered capital of VND151 trillion ($6.53 billion), according to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO).

This was down seven percent in number, but up 53.8 percent in value over the same period last year.

Real estate remained among the top 5 sectors with the highest number of newly registered businesses in January, up 17 percent year-on-year.

Information-communication came next with an increase of 13 percent, followed by education which rose 5 percent.

In addition to new businesses, nearly 8,500 enterprises resumed operations in January, bringing the total number of newly registered enterprises and reopening ones to over 18,500.

However, the number of businesses that closed exceeded the establishment of new ones.

Data from the GSO shows that over 10,800 businesses registered to temporarily suspend their operations, up over 25 percent year-on-year.

Nearly 12,300 businesses were waiting to complete dissolution procedures.

More than 1,800 enterprises completed their dissolution procedures, up 16 percent year-on-year, concentrated in areas such as car and motorbike repair; manufacturing, processing and construction.