Nearly 9,000 new companies launched in Vietnam in January

By VnExpress February 2, 2017 | 07:16 pm PT

A man works at a furniture factory in Xuan Hoa, outside Hanoi, Vietnam December 9, 2016. Photo by Reuters/Kham

A strong start for the economy in the new year after a record high number of new openings in 2016.

Vietnam's business community has hit the grounds running in the new year.

Official reports showed that 8,990 companies opened in January, up 8 percent from last year. Their registered capital surged 52.3 percent to VND90.3 trillion ($4 billion) in total.

The new companies are expected to create 104,100 jobs. In comparison, there were 8,320 new companies with 124,000 new jobs in January last year.

Nearly 5,600 suspended companies also resumed operations last month.

The number of businesses shutting down increased 18.3 percent year-on-year to 1,583.

Vietnam hopes to see over one million businesses in operation by 2020. It is now halfway to that point.

The country saw a record number of business openings of 110,000 last year, strengthening hopes for robust growth and strong investment in the near future.

Officials from the labor ministry reportedly said that Vietnam aims to create 1.6 million jobs this year, roughly the same figure last year.

More than 3 percent of the country’s urban adults are unemployed while the rural rate is nearly 2 percent.

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