New business registered capital up 36.2 percent to $68.6 bln in Jan-Aug

Data released on September 3 by the National Statistics Office shows that in the first eight months of 2026, nearly 138,100 new enterprises registered nationwide, up 7.7 percent year-on-year.

By sector, construction experienced a boom with 13,746 newly registered enterprises, up 40.1 percent year-on-year, while real estate businesses rose 15.1 percent to 4,078 firms. However, market elimination in both sectors remained fierce.

Dissolutions in construction surged 141.6 percent, and 2,384 real estate firms were dissolved, up 135.1 percent. This reflects ongoing restructuring in the property market, forcing cash-strapped and legally entangled firms out to make room for stronger players.

Even high-rebound sectors faced severe churn. Newly established enterprises in accommodation and catering services grew 32 percent, and transportation and warehousing rose 29.4 percent, yet dissolutions in both sectors shot up by over 117 percent and 135 percent, respectively.

A major bright spot was electricity, water, and gas production and distribution, where new enterprise creation leaped 60.2 percent, signaling a strong shift toward core infrastructure and energy investments.

In August 2026 alone, Vietnam recorded nearly 12,200 newly registered enterprises. While this represented a 14.4 percent drop month-on-month and a 40.5 percent decrease year-on-year, positive signals emerged from capital quality.

Total registered capital for the month reached nearly VND189.4 trillion ($7.2 billion), up 13.9 percent month-on-month, raising the average capital per new enterprise in August to VND15.6 billion ($597,160), a 33.2 percent increase compared to July.

Conversely, market pressure weighed heavily on existing businesses, with 9,631 enterprises completing dissolution procedures in August, up 33.6 percent month-on-month and surging 151.2 percent year-on-year.

Despite the strong capital injection across both the monthly and eight-month figures, the capital surge did not translate into job growth.

Total registered workforce of new enterprises in the eight-month period dropped 15.4 percent year-on-year to nearly 657,700 employees. This shift toward capital intensity over workforce expansion underscores a strategic move toward automation and efficiency, as businesses limit hiring to curb operational expenditure.