About 940 enterprises who suspended operations in the first half of the year restarted business last month, said Vietnam General Department of Taxation.

This is seen as a positive signal for the market following the closure of nearly 22,000 businesses in the first six months of the year.

By last month, this trend had subsided and the number of businesses that suspended operations had come down to 20,741. Nearly 47,000 new enterprises were also registered, including 5,000 State-run businesses.

The department added that the recovery is led by non-State firms.

According to the department's second-quarter report, pre-tax profits for all enterprises in Vietnam in the second quarter were 2.5 percent higher than in the first quarter, while profits for State-run companies were up 5.8 percent.

The Department of Statistics said as of last year, there had been 451,103 registered businesses, though only 375,732 were operating, with the rest suspending operations or shutting down. For most companies the biggest problems have been the inability to obtain credit at reasonable rates and high stockpiles.-VNA