Vietnam has brought in 19.2 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 10 months of this year, a whopping 65.5 percent more than last year's figure, according to the General Statistics Office (GSO).

The GSO said around 1,050 new projects had been licensed this year with a registered capital of 13.1 billion USD, up 79 percent from the previous figure, with the remaining 6.1 billion USD in capital coming from existing projects.

Meanwhile, FDI disbursement in the January-October period only rose by 6.4 percent from last year to 9.6 billion USD.

According to the GSO, FDI flows were mostly directed towards the processing and manufacturing industries, accounting for 77.6 percent (14.9 billion USD) of the total registered capital.

Electricity production and distribution, and air conditioning made up 10.6 percent with the remaining industries bringing in 2.3 billion USD.

In the same period, northern Thai Nguyen province trounced other localities with 3.39 billion USD in registered capital, making up 26 percent of the total FDI haul.

It was followed closely by central Binh Thuan province on 2.03 billion USD, northern Hai Phong city on 1.84 billion USD and central Binh Dinh province on 1.09 billion USD.

The localities with the lowest levels of FDI included HCM City on 844 million USD, northern Hai Duong province on 613 million USD and southern Binh Duong province on 521 million USD.

The Republic of Korea became Vietnam 's largest FDI investor in the 10-month period, accounting for 27 percent (3.58 billion USD) of investment.

Singapore was the second largest contributor with 2.72 billion USD, followed by China on 2.2 billion USD and Japan on 1.15 billion USD.

Russia was the fifth largest investor, bringing in 1.01 billion USD.

Meanwhile, more than 3,600 FDI businesses were checked on tax duties.

Deputy Minister of Finance Do Hoang Anh Tuan said the ministry has completed its review of more than 3,600 out of the 9,200 FDI businesses operating in Vietnam .

Tuan said the ministry has discovered 225 out of the 300 enterprises conducting transfer pricing, adding that some firms even reported losses to avoid paying higher taxes.

He urged taxation departments to classify the risks of individual firms to provide suitable management, adding the ministry has asked the General Department of Taxation to mobilise an extra 15,000 people to investigate tax obligations and other duties at foreign businesses.-VNA