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.

The figure included 5.4 billion
USD pumped in between February 20 and March 20 only, according to the
General Statistics Office (GSO).

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

The processing and
manufacturing industries recorded the highest amount of foreign
investment, with 84 new foreign-invested projects, which raised their
total newly-registered and additional capital to 5.539 billion USD –
accounting for 91.8 percent of the capital registered in the first
quarter.

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

In Q1, Japan remained Vietnam’s
leading investor with a total newly-registered and additional
investment 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 Son
Oil Refinery project, central Thanh Hoa province (where the refinery is
located) became the leading locality in FDI attraction. It was followed
by northern Thai Nguyen province, southern Binh Duong and Dong Nai
province and northern Hai Phong city.

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