As many as 88,000 enterprises in Viet Nam have withdrawn from the market in the first five months of this year, up 22.6 per cent year-on-year, said the General Statistics Office (GSO).

Of the sum, 55,200 enterprises temporarily ceased operations, up 20.3 per cent against the last year's same period. Another 25,500 were in the dissolution process, a yearly rise of 34 per cent and 7,300 completed dissolution procedures, up 6.5 per cent year-on-year.

On average, 17,600 businesses withdraw from the market every month, the GSO said.

From January to May, over 61,900 new enterprises were formed with a total registered capital of VND568.7 trillion, down 2 per cent in the number of firms and 25.3 per cent in capital from the same period last year.

The average registered capital of a newly-established enterprise also dropped 24 per cent year-on-year to VND9.2 billion.

Besides, nearly 95,000 enterprises have resumed operations during the period, which plunged by 4 per cent from a year earlier, the GSO reported.

The office added that total capital added to the economy in the reviewed period also declined 43 per cent year on year to over VND1.393 quadrillion, including over VND824 trillion poured into operating businesses.

Earlier, the National Private Economic Development Research Board under the Government’s Advisory Council for Administrative Procedure Reform said local enterprises were going through a particularly difficult situation.

In a survey announced recently by the board, 82.3 per cent of businesses planned to reduce their business scale or suspend business and stop doing business in the last months of the year.

Of which, 11 per cent of the firms planned to stop doing business or wait for dissolution; 12.4 per cent of them would suspend business, and 38.5 per cent would sharply reduce their business scale.

Among enterprises still operating in 2023, 71.2 per cent were expected to reduce their labour size by over 5 per cent, while 81 per cent were likely to have revenue down by over 5 per cent.

Meanwhile, business confidence in the macro-economy and industrial economy was low, as up to 81.4 per cent of surveyed enterprises had a negative or very negative assessment of Viet Nam's economic prospects in the remaining months of 2023.

The survey also identified four groups of the biggest difficulties that enterprises have been facing. That were difficulties in orders (59,2 per cent), accessing loans (51.1 per cent), carrying out administrative procedures ( 45.3 per cent) and meeting the provisions of the law (45.3 per cent).

The survey's findings, in which 9,556 firms participated, were sent to Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh. — VNS