HÀ NỘI — 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.

The State should continue speeding up administrative reform, improving the business climate and legal framework, Nguyễn Bích Lâm, General Director of the General Statistics Office (GSO) said at a press conference in Hà Nội on Tuesday.

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, Lâm 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.

Phạm Đình Thúy, 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, Thúy said.

According to the department, by December 31, 2017, Việt Nam had 561,064 operating enterprises, up 11 per cent year on year. The highest increases in the number of operating businesses were seen in Bắc Giang, Thanh Hóa, Hưng Yên, Bến Tre, Bắc Ninh, Vĩnh Phúc, Bình Dương and Đà Nẵng.

In 2017, the number of new firms set a record high of nearly 127,000, with a combined registered capital of nearly VNĐ1.3 quadrillion (US$57 billion), year-on-year rises of 15 per cent and 45 per cent, respectively.

Average registered capital was VNĐ10.2 billion per company in 2017, increasing 26.2 per cent from the previous year.

The number of enterprises resuming their operations was some 26,500, down 0.9 per cent compared with 2016.

It also said the new firms were mostly in wholesale and retail with 45,400 (36 per cent), processing and manufacturing with 16,100 (13 per cent) and construction with 16,000 (13 per cent).

In term of registered capital, the property sector made up the highest portion with VNĐ388.3 trillion, accounting for 30 per cent 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 per cent from the previous year. The manufacturing sector attracted the most workers at 430,622, accounting for 37 per cent of the total.

The department added that over 21,600 businesses registered to halt their operations in 2017, increasing 9 per cent 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 per cent from the previous year. — VNS