Ho Chi Minh City led cities and provinces nationwide in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first 10 months of this year, with a total registered and additional capital of 2.85 billion USD, accounting for 20.8 percent of the country’s total figure.

The northern province of Bac Ninh came second with 1.38 billion USD, followed by southern Dong Nai and Binh Duong provinces with 1.37 billion USD and 1.36 billion USD, respectively, according to the Foreign Investment Agency under Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Meanwhile, Hanoi and Hai Phong - two major cities in the north - ranked fifth and sixth with their respective registered investment capital of 993 million USD and 954 million USD.

The latest report from the agency also revealed that in the period, Vietnam attracted FDI worth 13.7 billion USD, or 71.2 percent of its total FDI in the same period last year.

Of the figure, exactly 9.95 billion USD came from more than 1,300 newly-licensed projects and the remainder, from 469 ongoing projects which increased their capital.

Manufacturing and processing remained the hottest sector to foreign investors, attracting the lion's share of FDI at 9.7 billion USD, or 70.8 percent of the nation's total registered capital. Estate trading ranked second with 1.22 billion USD, and construction industries came in third with 1.03 billion USD.

Among the 56 countries and territories investing in Vietnam , the Republic of Korea was the leading source, with 3.6 billion USD, followed by Singapore with 2.64 billion USD and Hong Kong with 1.67 billion USD.

FDI businesses in the country disbursed 10.15 billion USD, up 5.9 percent year-on-year.-VNA