Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has signed a decision to conduct a general economic census across the country in March 2017. — Photo vneconomy.vn

The census will include information about economic establishments, labourers' income, production and business activities, enterprises' technological application and their access to loans.

It will be carried out in two phases.

The first phase, implemented from March 1 to May 30, 2017, will survey production and business establishments in the business sector, administrative offices, branches and representative offices of foreign enterprises, and foreign non-governmental organisations.

The second phase will take place July 1-30 to collect information about religious and belief establishments, and individual non-agricultural, fishery and forestry business and production establishments.

Preliminary data will be released in December 2017, while the official results will be announced in the third quarter of 2018.

The census's objectives are to help assess the country's socio-economic development, and to help the Party and State build development policies.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment is assigned to establish a Steering Committee on the census, develop questionnaires, propose estimated funds for the census and conduct a pilot survey to gain insight and fix possible shortcomings.

Other ministries, including defence, public security, information and communications, plus relevant agencies and localities, are asked to co-operate.

According to the General Statistics Office, by the end of last year, more than 941,000 enterprises were established in Viet Nam, 57 per cent of which were operating at that time.

Another 16,673 enterprises suspended their operations, more than 271,200 stopped operations without registering to relevant authorities and 117,000 enterprises dissolved.

In the first seven months of this year, about 64,000 enterprises were created with a total registered capital of nearly VND497 trillion (US$22.36 billion). Newly-established firms rose by 23.3 per cent in number and 54.7 per cent in capital value year-on-year. The adjusted capital in the reviewed period posted VND894.9 trillion, raising the total registered and adjusted capital to VND1.4 quadrillion.

More than 16,700 enterprises, which suspended their activities due to difficulties, have resumed operations, up 67.5 per cent from the same period last year.

In July, the number of new firms exceeded 9,600 with a total registered capital of VND69.2 trillion, a slight decrease from June.

In mid-May, Viet Nam's Government issued a resolution to support and develop Vietnamese enterprises with a goal of having about one million enterprises by 2020. Up to 35 per cent of the enterprises are expected to hold innovation activities yearly. — VNS