The latest statistics of the Ministry of Planning and Investment showed that the figure broke the record of 110,000 firms last year.
Accordingly, the total number of new firms was nearly 127,000 with total registered capital of VND1.3 quadrillion, posting increases of 15.2% and 45.4%, respectively, compared to last year.
Average registered capital was VND10.2 billion per company in 2017, increasing 26.2% from the previous year.
The number of enterprises resuming their operations was some 26,000 with total additional capital of VND1.86 quadrillion.
In December alone, the number of newly-established businesses was at 10,814 with a total registered capital of VND164 trillion, representing an increase of one percent in number and 49% in registered capital from the previous month.
Therefore, average registered capital was VND15.2 billion per company in December, up 50.8% from the previous month.
The country also had 1,245 firms resume operations this month.
"The number of new firms and registered capital has been on an upward trend in the 2011-17 period. The number of new companies in 2017 rose by 1.6 times from 2011, while registered capital increased 2.6 times,” the department said.
It also said the new firms were mostly in wholesale, retail and automobile repair with over 45,400 (36%), processing and manufacturing with 16,100 (13%) and construction with 16,000 (13%).
In term of registered capital, the property sector made up the highest portion with VND388.3 trillion, accounting for 30% of the total. The real estate sector in 2017 attracted a large amount of capital in comparison with other sectors.
It was followed by the wholesale, retail, construction and manufacturing sectors.
The number of workers at new firms in 2017 was over 1.16 million, reducing 8.4% from last year. The manufacturing sector attracted the most workers at 430,622, accounting for 37% of the total.
The department added that over 21,600 businesses registered to halt their operations in 2017, increasing nine percent from last year.
Notably, the number of sectors that had the most businesses registering to halt their operations included wholesale, retail, construction and processing.
In addition, the number of enterprises waiting for dissolution in 2017 was reduced by 4.6% from last year.
