Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnamis still a popular investment destination for foreign investors, who poured 14billion USD into the country during the first five months of the year.
With COVID-19 raging, the Regent Garment Factory Ltd.,a subsidiary of Hong Kong (China)’s Crystal International Group Limited, stillsubmitted a request to the northern province of Hai Duong to open a new 35 millionUSD garment factory in the locality. The request was approved last week.
The investment in the third factory confirms the company's long-terminterest in Vietnam.
Five other investors also received investment licencesin the southern industrial hub of Binh Duong province. The largest investment camefrom Taiwan (China)’s Far Eastern Group, with an additional 610 million USD forits Polytex Far Eastern factory, which already has investment of nearly 600million USD.
Meanwhile, the Cheng Loong Group from Taiwan (China) decidedto inject an additional 100 million USD into its 1 billion USD paper factory.The project was licenced in late 2015.
Another big name - Procter & Gamble - has poured44.8 million USD into a project, raising its investment in Vietnam to 247.8million USD. At the same time, Singapore’s New Motion Private Company Limited launched a new projectworth 184 million USD this year, while the Logistics ECPVN Binh Duong projectwill have investment of over 34.4 million USD.
A number of other large-scale projects have also receivedlicences since the beginning of this year.
These projects prove that Vietnam remains a favouritedestination for foreign investors despite COVID-19. Figures from the ForeignInvestment Agency at the Ministry of Planning and Investment show that foreigninvestment in Vietnam rose 0.8 percent in the first five months of 2021 to 14billion USD.
Of the total, newly-registered capital stood at nearly8.83 billion USD, up 18.6 percent year-on-year, while additional investment totalled3.86 billion USD, an increase of 11.7 percent compared to the same period last year.Investment through capital contributions and share purchases was 1.31 billionUSD, down 56.3 percent year-on-year.
According to the agency, the disbursement of foreigninvestment was up 6.7 percent to 7.15 billion USD.
Experts said Vietnam boasts various competitiveadvantages in foreign investment attraction.
Its engagement in new generation free trade agreements(FTA), including the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), the Comprehensiveand Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), and theEU-Vietnam FTA has helped it access free markets in 55 countries and territories,including 15 G20 economies, making it more attractive to foreign investors,according to Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc.
Among Vietnam’s advantages, she said, are its stablemacro-economy and positive growth amid COVID-19, strong support for foreigninvestors, and the issuance of a series of key laws regarding investment activitiesas well as special incentives for large-scale projects.
However, in reality, the foreign investment attraction“race” is becoming fiercer in Southeast Asia, she noted, adding that regionalcountries also introduce attractive policies to promote foreign investment.
Nguyen Duc Trung, Chairman of the People’s Committeeof central Nghe An province, said foreign investors are waiting for a specificforeign investment attraction strategy as well as special preferentialpolicies./.