THURSDAY, JANUARY 03, 2002
18,500 new businesses registered in Vietnam
HANOI, Vietnam: About 18,500 new private businesses opened in Vietnam last year, bringing the number established since January 2000 to 33,000, an official said Wednesday.
The new companies had registered capital of 22 trillion dong ($1.46 billion), said the official of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Private business has been booming in Vietnam since the introduction of a new Enterprise Law in January 2000.
The 14,500 private businesses established in 2000 had a combined registered capital of 16 trillion dong ($1.06 billion), the official said.
Last month, Vietnam's National Assembly amended the 1992 constitution to formally recognise private business as an "important integral part of the socialist-oriented economy." Private companies can now enter any area of business not specifically prohibited by law.
However, the ruling Communist Party, which launched market-oriented economic reforms in the mid-1980s, maintains that often-inefficient state-owned enterprises must continue to play a leading role in the national economy.
( AP )
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