Vietnam will focus on attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with priority on environmentally friendly ones with a high technology proportion and low natural resources and energy consumption, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Van Trung has said.

Highlighting directions on the country’s path to luring FDI in the coming time, the official said Vietnam has been choosing projects that are more suitable to its new development period.

At the same time, the country will also call for large-scale projects, besides those invested by small and medium-sized enterprises.

In 2013, FDI attraction was a bright spot in Vietnam ’s economic picture with more than 20 billion USD.

Recently, amid the global difficult economic situation, domestic firms have countered great challenges that they have not had to face since the country started its renewal cause, the Deputy Minister noted.

However, the country has seen good results in FDI attraction, accounting for about 25 percent of the total social investment and making up 18 percent of national GDP . The FDI sector contributed 64-67 percent of export revenue and 12-14 percent of the national budget revenue while creating over two million jobs.

Particularly, FDI also played an important part in foreign trade and current account balance in 2013, he said.

Since 1999, especially since the Law on Enterprises was introduced, domestic businesses have made new progress, conquering the market with effective management measures. However, many firms faced difficulties. In that context, the FDI sector has risen and made a significant contribution to the national economy, he said.

The official affirmed that the Party and State see no difference between domestic and FDI enterprises. While there are opinions that FDI firms got the better of domestic ones, it is not a worrying matter, he said, arguing that rather it created a good environment for domestic businesses to improve themselves, he said.

At the same time, the Deputy Minister noted that many measures have also been applied to help domestic businesses enhance their competitiveness, adding that connectivity between foreign invested and domestic firms have been fostered through business activities.

Recently, the Government adopted a resolution on the direction to improve the efficiency of FDI attraction and use. In order to implement the resolution, the Ministry of Planning and Investment has been working to finalise the legal framework on FDI, focusing on the amendment of the Law on Enterprises as well as relevant documents, he said.

The ministry is also considering the decentralised mechanism in attracting FDI and reviewing its investment promotion activities, he added.-VNA