More than 82 percent of the 57,000 businesses established this year had stopped operations or dissolved as of September, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Trung said at a meeting yesterday.

The figure rose had risen by 22 percent year-on-year to the highest rate in the last 20 years, he said, destabilizing the economy.

“With only 10,000 enterprises remaining in operation, the economy has become unstable since businesses are the main factor for its stabilisation.”

The Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment, said most of the new businesses had been licensed in the capital and Ho Chi Minh City.

The number of businesses operating in HCMC as of December 31 last year rose by 23.2 percent to 96, 206, with most new firms being in the private and foreign-owned sectors, figures from the city Statistics Office show.

The trading and hotel and restaurant sectors posted the highest growth rates with 7,940 new businesses, or 43.8 percent of all new ones.