Restructure economy to boost new firms: official
Favourable conditions are needed to increase the number of new businesses and startups in order to realise the target of 1 million enterprises by 2020, an official has said.
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The State should continue speeding up administrative reform, improving the business climate and legal framework, Nguyen Bich Lam, General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) said at a press conference in Hanoi on February 6.
Due attention must be paid to restructuring the economy, equitising state-owned enterprises, luring more foreign direct investment and facilitating the development of the private sector, while enforcing the Law on Support for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises, Lam said.
Inspection should be strengthened to ensure firms would make reports and provide timely and accurate information for competent agencies for better management, he added.
Pham Dinh Thuy, Director of the GSO’s Industrial Statistics Department, underlined the need to increase inspections and supervision to ensure businesses operate effectively and legally.
Dialogues between State management agencies at all levels and enterprises should be conducted regularly, thus bettering the legal framework and policies to support enterprises, Thuy said.
According to the department, by December 31, 2017, Vietnam had 561,064 operating enterprises, up 11% year on year. The highest increases in the number of operating businesses were seen in Bac Giang, Thanh Hoa, Hung Yen, Ben Tre, Bac Ninh, Vinh Phuc, Binh Duong and Danang.
In 2017, the number of new firms set a record high of nearly 127,000, with a combined registered capital of nearly VND1.3 quadrillion (US$57 billion), year-on-year rises of 15% and 45%, respectively.
Average registered capital was VND10.2 billion per company in 2017, increasing 26.2% from the previous year.
The number of enterprises resuming their operations was some 26,500, down 0.9% compared with 2016.
It also said the new firms were mostly in wholesale and retail with 45,400 (36%), processing and manufacturing with 16,100 (13%) and construction with 16,000 (13%).
In term of registered capital, the property sector made up the highest portion with VND388.3 trillion, accounting for 30% of the total. The real estate sector in 2017 attracted a large amount of capital in comparison with other sectors.
It was followed by the wholesale, retail, construction and manufacturing sectors.
The number of workers at new firms in 2017 was more than 1.16 million, down 8.4% from the previous year. The manufacturing sector attracted the most workers at 430,622, accounting for 37% of the total.
The department added that over 21,600 businesses registered to halt their operations in 2017, increasing 9% over last year.
Notably, the number of sectors that had more businesses registering to halt their operations included wholesale, retail, construction and processing.
In addition, the number of enterprises waiting for dissolution in 2017 declined 4.6% from the previous year.
