Foreign investment on rise in Vietnam

Hanoi (VNA) - The foreign investment is looking up, as the total capital pledged for investment in the country until August 20 was nearly equal to that for the entire 2016.

The reports from the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) showed that foreign investors had registered to invest 23.36 billion USD into Vietnam since the beginning of this year until August 20 period, up 45.1 percent year-on-year.

Last year, Vietnam reported a total registered capital of 24.3 billion USD from foreign investors, up 7.1 percent against the previous year.

From the amount pledged this year, 13.45 billion USD came from 1,624 new licensed projects, a 37.4 percent rise; and 6.4 billion USD was the additional capital for 773 existing projects, up 40.2 percent. The remaining was from the capital contribution and share purchase of foreign investors.

According to the agency, the disbursement of the capital in the first eight months of this year by foreign investors was also positive, with a growth rate of 5.1 percent year-on-year to 10.3 billion USD.

In the period between January and August, foreign investors poured the capital into 18 industries, of which the manufacturing and processing industry was the most attractive destination with a total capital of 11.69 billion USD, equal to some 50 percent of the country’s total registered capital. However, the ratio was still lower than that in the previous years, when the industry often attracted some 70 percent of the country’s total registered capital.

[30-year FDI attraction to be reviewed]

This was followed by the power production and trading industry with 5.36 billion USD, accounting for 22.9 percent of the country’s total registered capital.

The mining industry was ranked the third, as its registered capital rose 5.5 percent to 1.28 billion USD.

The first eight months of the year saw 98 countries and territories wanting to invest in Vietnam, of which the Republic of Korea topped the list with a registered capital of more than 6 billion USD, accounting for 25.7 percent of the country’s total registered capital. Japan and Singapore followed with 5.74 billion USD and 3.92 billion USD, making up 24.58 percent and 16.8 percent of the total capital, respectively.

The business performance of the foreign firms was also optimistic during the period. Their exports, including crude oil, rose 15.5 percent to 95.66 billion USD, accounting for 71.6 percent of the country’s total export revenue during the period.

With an import value of 81.38 billion USD, foreign firms gained a trade surplus of 14.28 billion USD during the period.-VNA