Nearly 517,900 businesses were operating in Vietnam in 2017, rising 51.6 percent from the figure recorded in 2012, according to the general economic census announced by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam (GSO) on September 19.

The GSO announces the general economic census 2017

Despite the strong growth in the number of enterprises, there were only just over 10,000 large companies, accounting for a mere 1.9 percent especially in comparison with the dominating 98.1 percent of small- and medium-sized firms.

The southeastern region was home to nearly 216,000 businesses, accounting for 41.7 percent of all companies operating in the country.

The GSO said that the results of business operations and production in 2016 was better than in 2011, with net revenue recorded at 17,858 trillion VND (767.89 billion USD), 71 percent higher than that five years earlier.

Net revenue during 2011-2016 surged 11.4 percent or 1,400 trillion VND (60.2 billion USD). The non-State business sector had the largest earnings, making up of 55.9 percent of the total net revenue recorded in the business sector.

Head of the GSO’s Industry Statistics Department Pham Dinh Thuy said that the strongest growth in net revenue was seen in FDI enterprises, which expanded 134.5 percent in 2016 as compared to 2011.

Meanwhile, State-owned firms only contributed 16.7 percent to the net revenue.

Return on assets (ROA) of the companies were calculated at 2.7 percent in 2016, with the highest rate recorded in the FDI sector (6.9 percent), followed by State-owned firms (2.6 percent) and non-State firms (1.4 percent).

The industrial and construction sectors reported substantial ROA with 4.8 percent, while the profitability ratio in the agro-fishery-forestry and service sectors were 2 percent and 1.6 percent.

GSO General Director Nguyen Bich Lam urged the Government, ministries, sectors and localities to complete institution-building, accelerate the reform of administrative procedures, and produce rational measures to remove bottlenecks for enterprises and household businesses.

As economic development in the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution very much depends much on the quality of human resources, Lam said: “It is necessary for the Government to renew training methods to meet Industry 4.0 requirements”. –VNA