HẢ NỘI — A set of criteria to evaluate the corporate development of the country and of each province and city were released at a press conference on Saturday in the capital.

The criteria, compiled by the General Statistics Office (GSO) gauge the level of business development in 2017 and from 2010 to 2017.

The 10 major criterion cover operating businesses, new businesses, businesses with resumed operations, businesses with suspended operations, dissolved businesses, workers, capital, revenue, pre-tax profits, contributions to State budget and workers’ income.

In his speech at the event, Deputy Prime Minister Vương Đình Huệ said the criterion provide a good foundation for State agencies, sectors and localities to draw up proper policies in order to achieve the goal of one million enterprises in Việt Nam by 2020.

The Deputy PM also requested localities to utilise the criteria to assess how local businesses have been operating, so as to take appropriate measures in implementing the Government resolutions and continuing to improve local competitiveness.

From 2019, the GSO will release the business development criteria and the white book on the Vietnamese business situation annually on Việt Nam Entrepreneurs’ Day which falls on October 13.

As of December 31, 2017, the country was home to approximately 560,400 operating firms, up 11 per cent year-on-year, head of the GSO Nguyễn Bích Lâm said.

The service sector lured the highest quantity of new companies at over 390,000, a yearly hike of 10.3 per cent. The industry and construction sector came next with 164,000, up 12.2 per cent while the agro-forestry-fisheries sector ranked third with 5,400, up 23 per cent.  

According to the GSO report, 40 out of 63 localities achieved stronger growth in number of new companies than the nation’s average level, such as Bắc Giang at 34 per cent, Hà Nội at 32 per cent and Bắc Ninh at 29 per cent.

Notably, 2017 saw the highest number of newly-established firms with about 127,000, up 15.2 per cent compared to 2016. Among localities recording the strongest yearly growth in number of new enterprises were Bến Tre (up 273 per cent), Hà Giang (55 per cent), Tuyên Quang (53 per cent), Bắc Giang (49 per cent) and Vĩnh Phúc (46 per cent).

As per the data, the total registered capital of newly-formed firms in 2017 stood at VNĐ1.2 quatrillion (US$52.6 billion), surging 45 per cent over the previous year. Average registered capital was VNĐ10.2 billion, up 26 per cent year-on-year. — VNS