About 57.8% of enterprises in the manufacturing and processing industry are of the opinion that the business and production scenario in the second quarter will be better compared to the first quarter of this year while 32.4% of enterprises feel that Q2 will be stable, reveals a new survey conducted by the General Statistics Office (GSO).

As part of the survey, 58.2% of respondents predicted that production volume will increase in the second quarter while 33.5% anticipated a stable volume. Only 8.3% forecast a fall in production volume.

The hike in new business registration in the first quarter also demonstrated the optimistic trend among the business community about the economic outlook in 2017.

The GSO reported that as many as 26,478 enterprises registered to establish in the first quarter of this year with a total registered capital of VND271,200 billion (US$11.93 billion), up 11.4% in terms of number of registered enterprises and up 45.8% in terms of registered capital over the same period in 2016.

The first three months of this year also witnessed 9,271 enterprises returning to operation, down 1.1% over the same period last year, raising the total number of the newly-registered and those resuming operation to 35,700.

The average registered capital per newly-established enterprise was VND10.2 billion (US$448,800), an increase of 30.9% against the corresponding period last year. Real estate, finance sector, banking, insurance, job services and tourism recorded a sharp increase in the number of newly-registered enterprises and registered capital compared to the same quarter last year.

The real estate sector saw an increase of 55% in the number of registered enterprises and 31.1% in registered capital while the education and training sector posted an increase of 28% and 79.7% in terms of registered enterprises and registered capital respectively.

The finance, banking and insurance sector reported an increase of 26.3% and 50.1% in terms of registered enterprises and registered capital respectively, among others.

This was a good sign, showing the recovery of the economy and signs of improvements in business environment that made enterprises feel secure to enter the market, said Pham Dinh Thuy, head of the GSO's Industrial Statistics Department.

Despite the rapid growth of newly-registered enterprises in the first quarter, they contributed a small proportion to the national GDP as they were mainly small and micro enterprises operating in service sector, according to GSO Director Nguyen Bich Lam.

Nhan Dan