Start-ups jump 19% in 8 months; closures down
Play
In spite of many risk factors, new business start-ups in the first eight months of the year surged 19 per cent to 49,115 from 41,261 in the same period last year, while closures fell 4 per cent to 8,039 from 8,333.
“The rising number of new firms and a drop in business closures clearly show that enterprises still have high confidence in the economy’s fundamentals. The government’s policies to promote small and medium-sized enterprises have promoted growth,” Deputy Commerce Minister Natthawut Saikuar said yesterday.
The Business Development Department forecasts business openings soaring beyond 70,000 this full year.
However, many negative factors remain that could stall decisions to launch a business this year, chiefly slowing global economic growth, rising fuel prices and fluctuating exchange rates.
The delays in the government’s Bt350-billion water-management project and Bt2-trillion infrastructure-development project are also being closely monitored by entrepreneurs.
In August alone, openings rose 13 per cent year on year to 6,330 firms with initial capital up 7 per cent to Bt30.97 billion.
Last month, closures declined 8 per cent to 1,248 but their value spurted 399 per cent to Bt29.97 billion.
Some 239 export firms were set up last month, eight times the 38 that were shut down, reflecting healthy circumstances.
There are 558,890 firms, including 1,029 public companies, operating in the country with Bt10.8 trillion in initial capital.
