Illustrative image (Source: VNA) HCM City (VNA) – The southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City attracted 3.21 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first six months of 2019, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent, according to the municipal People’s Committee.
HCM City granted new investment licences to 598 projects worth over 539 million USD, up 15.8 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.
Real estate received the largest share of FDI, absorbing over 41 percent of the total capital, followed by professional activities, science and technology - 21.9 percent, wholesale and retail, repair of automobiles, motorbikes and other vehicles - 19.5 percent, and processing and manufacturing industry - 5.8 percent.
In January – June, 145 existing projects were allowed to add a combined of over 300 million USD to their investment, up 22.8 percent and 81.6 percent respectively.
The city also allowed 2,307 foreign investors to contribute capital, buy shares, and acquire stake of domestic enterprises with total registered capital of 2.37 billion USD.
Vice Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Le Thanh Liem said the city has carried out trade and investment promotion activities since the beginning of the year, which helped reinforce trust of domestic and foreign businesses in the local investment environment.
However, he noted that despite increases in the numbers of projects and the total investment, each project is averagely valued at below one million USD.
“The projects are at small scale. Over the past year, HCM City has yet to attract any large-scale ones,” Phong said.
Therefore, in the coming time, the city will push ahead with administrative reforms and prioritise selecting financially strong investors who use modern and environmentally friendly technologies, he added.-VNA
VNA
