A paper processing factory in Bắc Giang Province. — VNA/VNS Photo Danh Lam

HÀ NỘI — Local enterprises were going through a particularly difficult situation, a survey conducted by the National Private Economic Development Research Board under the Government’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform has revealed.

The survey's findings, in which 9,556 firms participated, were sent to Prime Minister Phạm Minh Chính.  

According to the survey, 82.3 per cent of businesses planned to reduce their business scale or suspend business and stop doing business in the last months of the year.

Of which, 11 per cent of the firms planned to stop doing business or wait for dissolution; 12.4 per cent of them would suspend business, and 38.5 per cent would sharply reduce their business scale. 

Among enterprises still operating in 2023, 71.2 per cent were expected to reduce their labour size by over 5 per cent, while 81 per cent were likely to reduce revenue by over 5 per cent. 

Meanwhile, business confidence in the macro-economy and industrial economy was low, as up to 81.4 per cent of surveyed enterprises had a negative or very negative assessment of Việt Nam's economic prospects in the remaining months of 2023.

In the dark picture, construction industry enterprises; micro-enterprises; small and medium-sized enterprises; non-State enterprises, and businesses operating in HCM City had more negative prospects as per the survey.

The survey also identified four groups of the biggest difficulties that enterprises have been facing. That were difficulties in orders (59,2 per cent), accessing loans (51.1 per cent), carrying out administrative procedures ( 45.3 per cent) and meeting the provisions of the law (45.3 per cent).

It also recorded specific recommendations and suggestions from the business community. That aimed to remove the immediate bottlenecks to strengthen trust and increase internal resources for businesses.

According to the General Statistics Office, global inflation and unstable situations caused potential threats to the Vietnamese economy's growth, particularly business operations. 

As a result, 14,509 businesses nationwide withdrew from the market in April 2023. In the first four months, 77,001 firms left the market, up 25.1 per cent over last year,  of which a large part temporarily ceased operations.

In a brighter sport, the number of businesses entering and rejoining the market in April rose 36.6 per cent to 9,610. Therefore, in the first four months of this year, 78,871 companies entered and re-entered the market nationally, including 49,872 new ones, up 0.6 per cent over the same period last year. — VNS