Business Development Department says it received 13% less applications for company registration this year, attributing economic slowdown as a main reason.
The department says the number of applicants amounted to 5,302 in September, down by 777 or 13% year on year.
But at the same time E-commerce business registrations increased fivefold during the first 10 months of this year, the Commerce Ministry’s Business Development Department reported.
The number of e-commerce registrations reached 15,363, up by 544 per cent compared with the first 10 months of last year.
According to Pongpun Gearaviriyapun, director-general of the department, the top three online businesses are those related to computing and the Internet, accounting for 17 per cent of the total, followed by fashion and apparel with 16 per cent, and health and medical care with 12 per cent.
The number of business closures increased in the first nine months by 16 per cent to 11,862, largely because the department has been clearing its registration system of inactive businesses.
The department projects between 60,000 and 65,000 newly registered companies this year.
