Hanoi attracted 919 million USD in 231 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in the first nine months of this year, the municipal Statistics Department has announced.

Among the sum, 493.5 million USD were poured in 190 newly-licensed projects. Almost new projects are in the service sector which requires less land and capital.

It is partly due to the fact that the remaining land in industrial zones available for new investors is now limited while newly established industrial zones are struggling with land clearance.

During the same period, the total capital for development went up 12.9 percent year-on-year to over 146 trillion VND. Of which, the State capital accounted for 42,4 billion VND (2 billion USD), up 11.5 percent.

Economic experts said that the increase in development capital in the second quarter is yet to improve compared to the previous quarter, which is attributable to difficult access to credit with interest rates remaining at a high level.

In the third quarter, development investment in the capital city is expected to improve after the Government asked relevant agencies to accelerate the progress of existing projects using the State budget.-VNA