About 79,300 new companies were set up in the first seven months of the year, with 27 per cent in the industrial and construction sectors. — Photo kinhtedothi.vn

HÀ NỘI — About 79,300 new businesses were established in Việt Nam with total registered capital of VNĐ999.4 trillion (nearly US$43 billion) in the first seven months of 2019, data from the General Statistics Office (GSO) has revealed.

The number of newly-established companies was up 4.6 per cent year on year and registered capital rose 29.6 per cent compared to last year’s seven-month period.

In the first seven-month period of 2018, the number of new firms was up 3.9 per cent year on year and their capital was up 11.6 per cent.

New firms tended to get bigger in the first seven months of this year as average registered capital per business was VNĐ12.6 billion (US$494,000), up 23.9 per cent year on year.

But in July, the number of new firms was down 4.7 per cent yearly to more than 12,300 firms. Their registered capital was VNĐ139.2 trillion, down nearly 27 per cent.

Existing firms in the first seven months increased their capital by VNĐ1.47 quadrillion (US$63.5 billion), bringing total registered capital among Vietnamese firms to VNĐ2.47 quadrillion.

Newly-founded companies also employed 743,900 new labourers, up 19.3 per cent from the previous year.

The increases of both number of new firms and their capital show local firms are getting stronger amid an improved business climate, according to the GSO.

Seventy-one per cent of all newly-founded companies are operating in the services sector. Other major fields of business are industrial and construction (27.2 per cent) and agriculture, aquaculture and forestry (1.4 per cent), the report says.

In addition, more than 23,100 companies halted business operations in the seven-month period, up 15.6 per cent year on year, while the number of dissolved firms was up a fifth to 9,300.

Most of the companies being dissolved and halted were small-sized with charter capital of less than VNĐ10 billion.

More than 11,800 companies’ licences were revoked between January and July. — VNS