Additional capital by foreign firms up over 24% in 10 months

Of them, US$13 billion was newly-registered capital, up 11.6%; over US$7.09 billion was added to existing projects, up 24.2%; and US$3.63 billion was capital contribution, down 40.6% annually.

During the first ten months of this year, foreign investors disbursed US$15.15 billion, down 4.1% year-on-year.

They poured capital in 18 out of 21 economic sectors, mostly in manufacturing and processing sector with US$12.74 billion, or 53.7% of the total registered capital. Electricity production and distribution followed with US$5.54 billion, real estate US$2.12 billion, wholesale and retail over US$803 million.

In terms of the number of new projects, manufacturing and processing, wholesale and retail, and science-technology attracted the most, accounting for a respective 33.1%, 27.8% and 16% of the total.

Among 97 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, Singapore took the lead with US$6.77 billion, or 28.5% of total investment in Vietnam, down 9.9% year-on-year. It was followed by the Republic of Korea with US$4.15 billion, up 21.3% and Japan with around US$3.4 billion, up 89.9%.

Among 58 cities and provinces receiving FDI, the southern province of Long An topped the list with US$3.68 billion, ahead of Ho Chi Minh City with more than US$2.73 billion and the northern city of Hai Phong with US$2.72 billion.

Ho Chi Minh City ranked first in terms of the number of new projects, projects with additional capital and share purchases, equivalent to 34.1%, 17.7% and 59.4%, respectively. The capital city of Hanoi came second in the number of new projects.

According to the MPI’s Foreign Investment Agency, the foreign-invested sector ran a trade surplus of nearly US$21.2 billion inclusive of crude oil, and roughly US$19.8 billion exclusive of crude oil, in nine months of this year. Meanwhile, the domestic sector posted a deficit of US$23.2 billion.