Singapore has 1,379 valid projects in Vietnam worth a combined amount of nearly 33 billion USD as of February this year, ranking third among 101 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The projects are distributed across 44 of 63 provinces and cities across Vietnam, a majority of which are operating in Ho Chi Minh City with 686 projects worth more than 9 billion USD, and Hanoi with 226 projects worth 4.17 billion USD.

Singapore has so far invested in 18 of the 21 sectors in Vietnam. A project funded through a Singaporean investor in Vietnam costs an average of 24 million USD, above the average 14 million USD investment for general foreign projects in Vietnam.

Of these, the processing and manufacturing have attracted the largest investments from Singapore with 426 projects and a total capital of 13.37 billion USD (40.5 percent of the total Singapore invested capital in Vietnam).

The property sector has 74 Singapore-invested projects worth nearly 10 billion USD (30.1 percent), followed by hotel and restaurant services with 1.88 billion USD, construction with 1.86 billion USD and art performance and entertainment with 1.78 billion USD.

Fully Singaporean foreign capital projects accounted for 63 percent, or 20.75 billion USD, with the remaining functioning as joint-stock or joint-venture projects.

During the first two months of this year, Vietnam licensed 12 new Singaporean-invested projects and allowed 71 million USD in capital to be added to eight ongoing projects.

The Republic of Korea has become the top foreign investor in Vietnam with 4,240 projects worth a total of 37.84 billion USD. Japan follows with 2,556 projects worth 37.37 billion USD, according to the FIA.-VNA