Business closures up 20% in first seven months

As many as 113,299 firms left the market in the first seven months of this year, up 19.8% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office.

The figure included 66,817 businesses suspending operations, up 19.3% year-on-year; 36,070 others suspending operations while awaiting bankruptcy procedures, up 27.9%; and 10,412 that completed bankruptcy procedures, up 0.6%.

In the seven-month period, the market welcomed 89,611 new businesses, up 0.2%, while 42,275 others returned, down 4.6%. The total of 131,886 new and returning players was down 1.4% year-on-year.

The total registered capital of new firms was VND843.3 trillion ($35.59 billion), down 17.1% year-on-year; and the number of their employees was down 5.2% to 588,862.

With 28,900 businesses registering to add VND1,118 trillion ($47.18 billion) to their charter capital in Jan-July, the total registered capital for the period was VND1,962 trillion ($82.81 billion), down 41.5% year-on-year.

There were 945 new firms in agriculture-forestry-fisheries sector, down 23.7%; 21,300 in industry-construction, down 5%; and 67,300 in services, up 2.5%.

The wholesale, retail and vehicle repair subsectors recorded the highest number of new firms with 34,069, up 8.2% year-on-year; followed by manufacturing-processing with 10,684, down 7.3%; and construction with 9,587, down 2.3%.

With 2,622 new firms, the real estate sector recorded the worst year-on-year slump of 56.2%. It also recorded the highest year-on-year jump in firms going bankrupt at 756, up 17%.

Registered foreign direct investment (FDI) rose 4.5% year-on-year to nearly $16.24 billion in the first seven months of 2023. Of this, $7.84 billion was newly-registered capital, a 38.6% increase year-on-year; $4.16 billion was additional capital for ongoing projects, down 42.5%; and $4.14 billion was capital contributions for stake acquisitions, up 60.7%.