According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, during 11 months of 2013, there were 71,018 newly-established registered companies with the total registered capital of VND 359,470 billion, up 9.5% against the same period in 2012. Meanwhile, 54,932 companies completed dissolution procedures and suspended operations, an increase of 8.4% compared to the same period in 2012.

Also during this time, the number of suspended firms back to operation is 12,709, up 8.2% compared with 2012. This shows that the number of newly registered enterprises and back-to-operation ones in 2013 have been no longer one-way movement with a large proportion of dissolved and suspended companies as 2012.

However, according to Mr. Huynh Van Minh, the Chairman of Ho Chi Minh City's business association, in 2013, many businesses, especially small ones did not really attach enough importance to restructuring so they have been dislodged from the market under the pressure of competition.

This situation is likely to occur more severely as the country is joining a number of free trade agreement talk, including TPP. Therefore, restructuring is not just the work of small and medium-sized enterprises, struggling businesses but also large ones in the quest of sustainable development.

"The power" of FDI enterprises should also be mentioned here. According to Dr. Tran Du Lich, deputy head of Ho Chi Minh City National Assembly Delegation, the sector have many advantages in which administration capacity and resilience are among the most dominant.

On the other hand, while TPP is under negotiations, many foreign enterprises have energetically poured capital in the areas of Viet Nam’s competitive advantages in order to wait in front for the opportunities while most of Vietnamese companies are still ambiguous about TPP.

Against this background, domestic companies have no choice but to rapidly restructure themselves keep up with modern economic trends.

One restructuring solution, favored by small and medium-sized enterprises, is finding partners, sharing financial burdens. Recent public and non-public mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have shown that enterprises are active in restructuring operations.

The two typical acquisition cases are the world leading investment fund Warburg Pincus and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi which buy shares of Vincom Retails and Vietinbank, respectively.

According to Mr. David Blackhall, the CEO of Vinaland Limited (an affiliate of Vinacapital Group), those are the important and meaningful mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals which reinforce foreign investors’ confidence in Viet Nam’s business environment, concurrently impulse the investment capital inflows, supporting Vietnamese enterprises in restructuring./.