More than 5,000 businesses became operational again in the first quarter of this year, posting a 10 percent year-on-year increase.

This showed that the economy had recovered and presented investment and trading opportunities for firms in difficulty, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said.

During the three-month period, Viet Nam saw over 19,000 newly-established enterprises starting business, with a total investment of VND111.2 trillion (USD5.19 billion), up 4 percent and 13.5 percent in terms of their count and registered capital, respectively.

The GSO's data also revealed that in March, 5,238 new firms were established, with a total registered capital of VND33.7 trillion (USD1.57 billion), representing a 23 percent year-on-year slump.

The reason for this was that the last month of the quarter fell after the Tet holiday period, which did not see many new business activities and was marked by low demand due to a high inventory, the GSO said.

The average registered capital for each company was VND5.8 billion (USD271 million) in March.

These businesses employed 265,000 labourers, 3.6 percent higher than the previous month.

The entertainment sector posted a higher growth in newly registered capital with a 12 percent increase; the property trading sector grew 48 percent and agro-forestry and fisheries reported a 36 percent jump in growth.

In the period, more than 16,000 businesses were either dissolved or suspended operations, increasing 14 percent from a year ago.

Most of the businesses were small-scale firms, with a charter capital of less than VND10 billion (USD467,000).

Of these, over 2,500 firms were completely dissolved, reflecting a 0.6 percent year-on-year decrease./.

( Hoang Quan )