Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of newly established enterprises in Vietnam in the first four months of 2020 stood at 37,600 with registered capital of a combined VND445.2 trillion (US$19.12 billion), down 13.2% in number and 17.9% in registered capital year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office. 

Data: GSO. Graphic: Nguyen Tung.

Average registered capital per newly-established enterprise was VND11.8 billion (US$506,888) during this period, down 5.5% year-on-year.

Taken into account VND680.9 trillion (US$29.25 billion) of additional capital pumped by active enterprises, total registered capital injected into the economy in the January-April period was VND1,126.1 trillion (US$48.37 billion), down 20.4% year-on-year.  

Among economic sectors, only electricity, gas and water production and distribution saw an increase in the number of new enterprises with 527, up 40.5% year-on-year.

Meanwhile, most of the newly-established enterprises are in the fields of wholesale, retail, automobile repair with 12,717 enterprises, down 10.6% year-on-year. New businesses in the construction sector totaled 5,011, down 13.1%; manufacturing and processing with 4,821, down 12.1%; science, technology, consultancy, design, advertising and others with 3,473, down 4%, among others.

Besides, 17,800 enterprises resumed operation, an increase of 2.1% against the similar period last year, bringing the total number of newly-registered and reinstated enterprises in the four-month period to 55,400.

The government-run office added that the number of laborers of newly-established enterprises between January and April was 315,700, down 29.7% against the same period last year.

It noted that due to impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of enterprises temporarily ceasing operations in the period surged 33.6% year-on-year to 22,700.

Moreover, the number of enterprises which completed procedures for bankruptcy in the period was 5,100, of which 4,600 enterprises had a capital base of less than VND10 billion (US$429,700), down 4.5%.

In April, the number of newly-established enterprises stood at 7,885, with registered capital of VND93.9 trillion (US$4.03 billion), representing declines of 35.7% in the number of enterprises and 28.6% in registered capital month-on-month.

It is, however, worth mentioning that the number of enterprises resuming operations increased 11.3% month-on-month and 40.4% year-on-year to 3,810, indicating that enterprises are preparing for a restart to grasp new business opportunities once the pandemic is contained.