The Foreign Investment Agency Foreign on March 11 released a report
revising the figure of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2012, saying
FDI pledged in the country rose by 4.7 percent to 16.3 billion USD in
the year.
Earlier in December, the agency, under the Ministry
of Planning and Investment, announced that the country had attracted
12.7 billion USD in FDI for the year, down by 18 percent year-on-year
due to the global economic slowdown.
The new report showed up
to 1,287 new foreign-invested projects were granted licences with a
total registered capital of 8.6 billion USD in 2012 or equivalent to
71.2 percent of the total figure.
The reviewed period also saw a slight decrease of 4.9 percent in FDI disbursement, reaching 10.46 billion USD.
As many as 550 operating projects were allowed to increase their
levels of capital by 7.7 billion USD, over doubling the figure of the
previous year.
The manufacturing and processing sectors
attracted the lion’s share of FDI, reaching 11.7 billion USD or 72
percent of the country’s total registered capital. The real estate
industry followed with 1.9 billion USD, 12.1 percent of the country’s
total capital.
The report also showed that Japan remained
Vietnam’s largest foreign investor with 5.59 billion USD, 34.2 percent
of the total FDI registered in the country. It was followed by Taiwan
(China) (2.6 billion USD) and Singapore (1.9 billion USD). The
country’s other major sources of investment included the Republic of
Korea, Samoa, British Virgin Islands and Hong Kong.
The
southern province of Binh Duong was the most attractive
destination to foreign investors last year with more than 2.79 billion
USD, accounting for 17.1 percent of the country’s total registered
capital. The central province of Ha Tinh, Hanoi and HCM City
followed with 2.14 billion US and 1.3 billion USD, respectively.
As of December 31, the country is home to 14,522 valid
foreign-invested projects with capital totaling 210.5 billion USD with
manufacturing and processing being the most attractive industries to
foreign investors.-VNA