The country recorded more than 33,000 new enterprises established and put back into operation, while the number of businesses dissolved reached nearly 23,000.

There were 23,767 enterprises established during the period with a total registered capital of VND186 trillion (US$8.37 billion), up by 24.8% of the total number of enterprises and 67.2% in registered capital over the same period last year.

The number of employees creating jobs by the newly-established enterprises is expected to reach over 322,000, up 21.5% year-on-year.

Businesses resuming operations in the first quarter this year are up 84.1% over the same period last year, reaching 9,376, while 20,044 enterprises faced difficulties and were forced to suspend operations, up 23.9% year-on-year.

Small-scale enterprises with registered capital of less than VND10 billion (US$450,000) account for the most (93%) of those have completed dissolution procedures and termination of production and trading activities (a total of 2,919 enterprises, up 13.8% year-on-year).

According to the GSO, the unemployment rate has decreased over the first quarter of 2015, at 2.23%; 2.96% among labourers in urban areas and 1.87% among rural areas.

A survey on business trends of enterprises operating in the processing and manufacturing industry in the first quarter of 2016 by the GSO showed that 29.2% of them are optimistic for business operations in the first quarter of this year against the previous quarter and 43.7% of them confirmed stable business operations during the period.

In the second quarter, 53.3% of enterprises are expected to report improved business operations in comparison to the first quarter and 35.5% of them have seen more stabilised production; of these, 54.2% of them forecast to have an increased production volume and over 50% expect to have higher orders than in the first quarter.