HCMC – In the year to January 20, both registered and disbursed foreign investment in Vietnam rose over the same period last year, according to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Vietnam attracted over US$2.1 billion in foreign investment, while the disbursed foreign investment reached over US$1.61 billion in the first 20 days of the year, up 4.2% and 6.8% year-on-year, respectively.
Newly registered investment plunged, while additional capital and foreign indirect investment surged over the same period last year.
Specifically, foreign investors registered to inject nearly US$388 million into 103 projects, up 2.2 times in the number of new projects but plummeting 70.7% in the newly registered capital.
According to the Foreign Investment Agency, in January 2021, the country had many large foreign investment projects with capital commitments amounting to over US$100 million each. The capital in these projects accounted for 60% of the total registered foreign investment in January last year.
Meanwhile, only one project had an investment of over VND130 million.
In addition, the first month of this year saw 71 operational foreign direct investment projects revise up their investment by a total of over US$1.27 billion, soaring 54.3% in the number of projects and 2.69 times in capital over the same period last year.
Foreign investors also conducted some 206 transactions to contribute funds and acquire shares in local firms with total capital of some US$443.5 million, up 6.2% and two times year-on-year, respectively.
The figures showed that many foreign investors stabilized and expanded their operations after the pandemic.
Foreign investors poured capital into 15 of 21 national economic industries in Vietnam, with the processing and manufacturing sector taking the lead in investment at over US$1.2 billion, accounting for 58.9% of the total registered capital.
The real estate sector came second with over US$472 million, followed by administration and supporting industries with US$221 million and wholesale and retail with US$52.5 million.
As of January 20, the country had over 34,600 operational foreign investment projects with total registered capital of nearly US$415.6 billion. The disbursed capital of these projects hit over US$253.2 billion, or nearly 61% of the total registered capital.
