Illustrative image (Source: VNA) Hanoi (VNA) – The inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) pledged to Vietnam in the first five months of this year hit a four-year high of 16.74 billion USD, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The FDI inflow also represented a yearly increase of 69.1 percent, the FIA said, adding that FDI disbursement jumped to 7.3 billion USD in the period, up 7.8 percent year-on-year.
As many as 1,363 new projects were licensed with total registered capital of 6.46 billion USD in the January – May period, up 38.7 percent against the same period last year, while 505 existing projects were injected an additional 2.63 billion USD, up 5.5 percent year-on-year.
During this period, 3,160 projects had 7.65 billion USD in capital contributed by foreign investors, 2.8 times higher than the figure of the same period last year and accounting for 45.7 percent of total registered capital.
Among 19 fields and sectors receiving capital from foreign investors, manufacturing and processing led with 10.5 billion USD, accounting for 72 percent of the total FDI. Real estate came next with 1.1 billion USD, or 7.5 percent, followed by retail and wholesale with 742.7 million USD or 5 percent.
Hong Kong was Vietnam’s largest source of FDI in the five-month period with 5.08 billion USD, accounting for 30.4 percent of total investment, thanks to Hong Kong’s Beerco Limited spending 3.85 billion USD on a stake in Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd.
The Republic of Korea and Singapore were the runners-up with 2.62 billion USD or 15.7 percent and 2.09 billion USD or 12.5 percent, respectively. China claimed fourth place with 2.02 billion USD, followed by Japan with 1.52 billion USD.
The capital city of Hanoi retained its crown as the most attractive destination for foreign investors with 4.79 billion USD, making up 28.6 percent of the nation’s total investment in the period as the city has been making efforts to streamline investment procedures.
The southern largest economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City ranked second with 2.78 billion USD or 16.6 percent of total FDI registered in the country, followed by its neighbour Binh Duong province, with 1.25 billion USD or 7.4 percent of the total.
From January to May, the foreign-invested sector generated $70.4 billion from exports, a 5 percent year-on-year increase and accounting for 70 percent of the country’s total export turnover.
By May 20, the country is home to 28,632 valid FDI projects with total registered capital of 350.5 billion USD. The total disbursed capital reached 198.7 billion USD, equivalent to 56.7 percent of the total committed investment.
Also according to the FIA, Vietnamese firms poured nearly 183 million USD into 69 projects abroad in the period.
Most of their overseas investment focused on science and technology (82 million USD), the banking sector (37 million USD) and the information and communication sector (31 million USD).
During the period, Spain, the US and Cambodia attracted the largest shares of Vietnamese investment with 60 million USD, 44 million USD and 38 million USD, respectively.-VNA
VNA
