Vietnam lures 1.9 billion USD in FDI in January

Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam witnessed a significant yearly increase of 52 percent to 1.9 billion USD in the first month of this year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

January’s FDI disbursement also rose 9.3 percent year-on-year to 1.55 billion USD, thoibaonganhang.vn reported, citing the ministry’s data.

Meanwhile, the capital pledged for stake acquisitions reached 761.8 million USD, up 114 percent compared to the same month last year, the data noted.

One remarkable project was Japanese Kyoshin Vietnam’s project which was allowed to raise its investment by 134.7 million USD. Based in HCM City, the factory specialises in manufacturing molding products and machinery.

Others included a 65-million USD logistics project funded by Katolec Global Logistics Vietnam from Japan in the northern province of Ha Nam and a Chinese-financed textile chemical manufacturing project worth 60 million USD in the southern province of Tay Ninh.

As per the data, foreign-invested enterprises continued to record a trade surplus of 1.83 billion USD during the month despite modest decreases of 5.1 percent and 1.3 percent in export and import turnovers at 13.58 billion USD and 11.75 billion USD, respectively.

The manufacturing and processing sector retained its crown as the most attractive sector to foreign investors, accounting for 1.19 billion USD, or 62.4 percent of total registered capital.

The science and technology sector beat the retail sector to rank second with 185.6 million USD, or 9.7 percent, while the retail sector came third with 179 million USD, or 9.3 percent.

Among 51 countries and territories investing in Vietnam in January, Japan remained the leading investor with nearly 364 million USD, making up 19 percent of the nation’s total FDI. It was followed by the Republic and Korea with 349 million USD, or 18.3 percent, and China with 308 million USD, or 16.1 percent.

Statistics showed that foreign investors pumped cash into 39 localities. Among them, Ho Chi Minh City attracted the lion’s share of FDI with 746 million USD, or to 39.1 percent of the total capital pledged in the country. The southern province of Binh Duong and northern Hai Duong province were the runners-up with 240 million USD, or 12.5 percent, and 126 million USD, or 6.5 percent, respectively.

As of January 2019, the nation is home to more than 27,640 valid foreign-invested projects with capital totaling 340.1 billion USD. Over half of the FDI has been disbursed thus far.

According to the ministry, Vietnamese businesses invested only 1.25 million USD into five projects abroad in January.

Their overseas investments targeted wholesale and retail and science, technology and communication sectors in Singapore, Finland, Japan and the US.- VNA