As many as 8,740 enterprises with total registered capital of VND122.8 trillion (US$5.34 billion) were established in July, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

These figures were sharply down by 22.8% and 25.3% in the number of newly registered enterprises and the registered capital respectively from the previous month.

This was considered a significant decrease since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic with complicated changes due to the rapid spread of the Delta variant.

Despite a sharp decrease in July, the number of newly established enterprises in the first seven months of the year still increased by 0.8% over the same period last year with 75,800 enterprises. As a result, more than VND1 quadrillion would be added to the economy in the near future.

The country also had nearly 26,600 firms registering to increase their capital by a total of VND1.36 quadrillion.

In addition, 29,600 enterprises returned to operation, up 3.6% over the same period last year, bringing the total number of newly established enterprises and those returning to operation in the seven-month period to 105,400. On average, nearly 15,100 businesses were newly established and returned to operation every month.

However, the number of enterprises halting their business or waiting for dissolution also increased significantly by 25.5% compared to the same period last year with 79,700 enterprises. Of which, nearly 40,300 firms halted business, representing a 23% year-on-year increase; 28,000 enterprises stopped operating and were waiting for dissolution procedures, up 28.6%. Another 11,400 companies completed dissolution procedures, up 27.4%. Thus, on average, nearly 11,400 businesses withdrew from the market a month.

According to GSO, the complicated situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and implementation of social distancing in 20 localities have affected the business registration in the first seven months of the year.

The number of newly established enterprises in the period decreased in some sectors such as electricity, gas, water production and distribution by 63.7%; accommodation and food services down 10.7%; employment services, tourism, rental of machinery and equipment, furniture and other support services decreased by 10.5%; and construction 3.7%.

Phan Duc Hieu, Deputy Director of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), said that the pandemic has had a strong impact on the goods supply and demand chains, impacting business opportunities, causing the number of enterprises entering the market to decrease sharply.

In the context of many difficulties and challenges due to COVID-19, the Government has issued policies to support businesses as well as directed ministries and localities to provide them with favourable conditions.

Hieu expected that with the Government's strong solutions in fighting COVID-19, the disease would be controlled and repelled as quickly as possible. Production and business activities would be vibrant and newly established enterprises would increase again.