Hanoi, HCM City listed as foreign investment magnets

Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi have been ranked 10th and 17th respectively out of the top 25 emerging market cities on the fDi 2016/17 Global Cities of the Future listing, a global investment service provided by the Financial Times.

Chinese cities dominated the ranking with Shanghai and Beijing claiming the top two places.

Thailand’s Bangkok was the other Southeast Asian city named on the list, placed above Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi in 9th.

In the top 25 overall ranking, which included emerging and developed countries, Singapore kept its position at the top of the table as the Global City of the Future 2016/17, with London holding strong in second place and Dublin displacing Hong Kong to rank third.

The ASEAN Investment Report 2016 showed that Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) recorded a combined 38% jump in FDI inflows to US$17.4 billion last year from the year before. Their share as recipients of the investment flowing into the region rose from 10% in 2014 to 14% in 2015.

Leading the CLMV group, Vietnam attracted FDI inflows of US$11.8 billion in 2015, a 28% increase year-on-year, said the report.

Vietnam received an estimated US$18.1 billion in new FDI pledges from January to November this year, down 10.5% from a year ago, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

However, the investment ministry said foreign investors had disbursed an estimated US$14.3 billion in Vietnam as of the end of November, a rise of 8.3% from the same period last year.

Foreign direct investment inflows to Vietnam are expected to hit a record high of US$15 billion this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at the Vietnam Development Forum earlier this month.