The number of new firms in February was estimated to reduce 41.5 per cent month on month to 5,900 due to the Lunar New Year holiday, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The new firms registered a total capital of VND96.3 trillion, a fall of 36.3 per cent compared with the previous month.

However, average registered capital surged 8.8 per cent month on month to VND16.3 billion.

The office said the nation had 15,979 newly established firms with total registered capital of VND247.4 trillion in the first two months of this year. Those figures reduced 14.6 per cent in number of new firms and 25.4 per cent in registered capital.

In the first two months, the average registered capital of a new enterprise reached VND15.5 billion, up 46.7 per cent against the same period last year.

During the two months, the local economy attracted total capital of VND778.6 trillion from the business community, including VND247.4 trillion from new firms and VND531.2 trillion from existing firms.

In addition, 10,191 enterprises resumed operations, a year-on-year increase of 48.2 per cent.

About 13,519 enterprises temporarily suspended operations during the two months, a surge of 20.8 per cent compared to the same period last year.

At the same time, 7,843 businesses had their business registrations revoked for not operating at their registered address. This is a new criteria for 2019.

The number of enterprises completing dissolution procedures in the first two months hit 3,156 enterprises, up 24.8 per cent compared to the same period last year. More than 92 per cent of them had a capital scale of less than VND10 billion, up 25.3 per cent. — VNS