New start-ups rise at start of 2016

Hanoi (VNA) – With 5,584 firms established in February, the country saw 13,904 new companies begin operations in the first two months of 2016, up 1 percent year-on-year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) reported.

The new firms registered a total capital of 113 trillion VND (5.13 billion USD), up 45.8 percent year-on-year. Further, average registered capital of a new firm reached 9.6 billion VND, up 44.9 percent year-on-year.

GSO estimated that these new firms created jobs for 198,500 local residents in this period, up 0.7 percent year-on-year.

During the first two months of the year, 7,416 firms also resumed operations, up 69.5 percent against the same period last year.

However, the number of firms that have either declared a temporary suspension or shut down operations in the first two months was also high.

During these months, companies that declared a temporary suspension numbered 16,471, up 17.3 percent year-on-year.

The number of enterprises that completed disclosure procedures and shut down operations also rose 6.8 percent to 2,195. Most of these firms were small-sized, with registered capital of less than 10 billion VND each.

Last year, more than 94,750 businesses were established, with registered capital of 601.5 trillion VND, up 26.6 percent and 39.1 percent over 2014, respectively. However, last year also saw more than 9,400 firms dissolved and shut down, inching down 0.4 percent year-on-year.

According to a recently released GSO survey, many businesses active in the processing and manufacturing industry have been more optimistic about prospects in 2016 thanks to improvements in the final months of last year. Nearly 41 percent of respondents said they hope for better prospects this year, than seen in the final quarter of last year.

Further, up to 91.1 percent of respondents were hopeful that the number of new orders will rise or remain stable this year.

To conduct more effective business and production this year, GSO Director General Nguyen Bich Lam said the Government should offer incentive policies on credit, funds and market information access to encourage start-up firms.-VNA