Foreign companies have continued pouring investment into Vietnam to take advantage of the expected opportunities presented by the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement (TPP), the news-in-English website dtinews.vn quoted a local economist as saying.

According to Dr. Nguyen Dinh Cung, head of the Central Institute for Economic Management (CIEM), the signing of TPP is hoped to bring many trade and investment opportunities to Vietnam.

The FDI wave to the country has been progressing in recent years and is expected to continue for years to come after the agreement is signed.

Professor Nguyen Mai, former Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, said the higher FDI can be attributed to an improved business climate and political stability in Vietnam along with lower interest rates and better infrastructure.

After the World Bank released its report, “Doing Business 2014”, which showed the investment climate in the country had lost ground compared to last year, the Prime Minister urged miniseries, agencies and localities to make improvements.

This year, Samsung plans to produce 230-240 million mobile phones in Vietnam. Other large firms also plan to set up research and development centres in Vietnam, which may help to boost the development of support industries.

The Foreign Investment Agency predicted that Vietnam would attract a total FDI of 22 billion USD, including both the newly-registered and added capital, equal to that of 2013. Of that amount, 13-14 billion USD is expected to be disbursed.

In January, about 400 million USD came in from foreign investors, with Singapore contributing the most - 132.65 million USD.-VNA