Vietnam sees FDI surge in first quarter

As of March 20, newly registered and expanded foreign direct investment (FDI) capital in Vietnam was estimated at 6.034 billion USD, representing a year-on-year rise of 63.3 percent and equalling 37 percent of the 2012 figure.
As of March 20, newly registered and expanded foreign direct investment(FDI) capital in Vietnam was estimated at 6.034 billion USD,representing a year-on-year rise of 63.3 percent and equalling 37percent of the 2012 figure.

The figure included 5.4 billionUSD pumped in between February 20 and March 20 only, according to theGeneral Statistics Office (GSO).

Newly-registeredinvestment was estimated at 2.93 billion USD in 191 projects, up 2.2percent over the same period last year. Meanwhile, additional investmentin the 71 existing projects was more than 3.1 billion USD, a surge ofnearly 277 percent.

The processing andmanufacturing industries recorded the highest amount of foreigninvestment, with 84 new foreign-invested projects, which raised theirtotal newly-registered and additional capital to 5.539 billion USD –accounting for 91.8 percent of the capital registered in the firstquarter.

They were followed by the property, andwholesale, retail and repair sectors, with the total newly-registeredand additional capital of 249.84 million USD and 85.2 million USD,respectively.

In Q1, Japan remained Vietnam’sleading investor with a total newly-registered and additionalinvestment of 3.159 billion USD. The country was followed by Singapore,the Republic of Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Thanks to an additional investment of 2.8 billion USD in the Nghi SonOil Refinery project, central Thanh Hoa province (where the refinery islocated) became the leading locality in FDI attraction. It was followedby northern Thai Nguyen province, southern Binh Duong and Dong Naiprovince and northern Hai Phong city.

GSO reported that up toMarch 22, the country’s total disbursed FDI was 2.7 billion USD, up 7.1percent year on year and equal to 25.8 percent of the total capitaldisbursed in 2012.-VNA

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