HCMC – Of US$15.4 billion pledged for foreign investment projects in Vietnam in the first seven months of the year, the local manufacturing industry attracted over US$10 billion.
According to the latest report of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), the newly-registered foreign capital did not make a complete recovery due to anti-pandemic measures. However, this year saw a sharp increase in foreign investors’ capital adjustments and contributions.
In the seven-month period, 927 projects received investment certificates with total registered capital of over US$5.72 billion, down 7.9% and 43.5% year-on-year, respectively.
Moreover, 579 operational foreign-invested projects received approval to pour an additional US$7.24 billion, soaring over 59% against the same period last year. Foreign investors also carried out 2,072 transactions to contribute funds to and acquire shares in local companies, with the total value exceeding US$2.58 billion, falling 13.8% and rising 25.7% year-on-year, respectively.
A significant decline in newly-pledged capital resulted in a year-on-year drop of 7.1% in newly-registered, adjusted, and contributed capital at more than US$15.41 billion.
According to the FIA, foreign investors have invested in 18 of the 21 economic sectors.
The processing and manufacturing industry took the lead with a total investment of more than US$10 billion, accounting for 64.3% of total registered investment in the year to July.
Many manufacturing electronic and hi-tech product projects have seen an investment of hundreds of millions of dollars each. For instance, the Samsung Electro-mechanics Vietnam project in the northern province of Thai Nguyen received an additional US$920 million. The Fujifilm Business Innovation Vietnam project in HCMC saw its investment revised by over US$494 million.
The local manufacturing and processing sector remains a magnet for foreign investment thanks to the country’s low-cost labor, political stability, and deeper economic and international integration, which gave Vietnamese businesses an opportunity to become part of international supply chains, said economic experts and investment consultants.
The real estate sector came second with a total investment of over US$3.21 billion, followed by the science-technology and information-communications sectors with total respective capital of nearly US$526.2 million and US$465 million.
Between January and July this year, 88 countries and territories invested in Vietnam. Of them, Singapore ranked first with over US$4.3 billion, followed by South Korea with nearly US$3.26 billion and Denmark with US$1.32 billion.
