Hanoi, May 31 -- The Government is focusing on boosting the development of enterprises and encouraging private investment to accelerate post-pandemic economic growth.

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed enterprises into difficulties and the Government's target of having one million firms by the end of this year might be a long shot, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The number of new firms set up in the first four months of this year fell by 13.2 percent against the same period last year while the number of firms temporarily halting operations rose by 33.6 percent.

The Agency for Business Registration forecast that even in the best scenario, the number of new firms this year would be around 125,000, 13,000 less than 20...