Vietnam becomes bright spot for foreign investors despite COVID-19
VOV.VN - The nation remains an attractive investment destination for investors from the EU, Japan, and the United States and has become the leading priority in the ASEAN region for their medium and long-term goals.
The inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) during the opening five months of the year into the country reached US$14 billion, up 0.8% against the same period from last year despite capital flows globally slowing due to complicated developments relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Some of the typical large-scale projects include a US$475 million project by the US’ Intel group and a production expansion project of LG Display from the Republic of Korea (RoK) with a capital of US$750 million.
Furthermore, several potential investors in the hi-tech field from Singapore, Japan, the US, and the RoK continue to pour capital and implementing new projects in the nation.
These represent remarkable achievements despite the continued spread of the COVID-19 pandemic globally causing a heavy impact on the global economy, especially in developed countries, which represent key Vietnamese investment partners.
Nguyen Van Toan, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises, attributed these results to the overall quality of the local investment climate, socio-political stability, along with a highly-skilled workforce.
Nguyen Bich Lam, former general director of the General Statistics Office, also attributed the positive achievements to the country’s successful COVID-19 containment efforts, which have served to promote the nation as a safe and attractive destination for foreign investment flows.
Due to these factors, the amount of FDI disbursement throughout the reviewed period has hit US$7.15 billion, a rise of 6.7% compared to the same period from last year.
Michael Chiu, chairman of the Hong Kong Business Association in Vietnam, pointed out that maintaining positive economic growth and effectively responding to the pandemic reflects the Government’s effective management, despite being hindered by limited resources.
Do Nhat Hoang, director of the Foreign Investment Agency, said the country boasts a number of competitive advantages in terms of attracting FDI inflows, including its participation in a number of new-generation free trade agreements (FTAs).
The move has therefore helped the nation to gain entry to markets with high purchasing power, whilst export items enjoy low or zero tax rates.
According to experts, Vietnam continues to represent a promising destination for FDI inflows due to factors such as socio-political stability, improvements of the legal system, reforms of economic institutions, and resilience in overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic.
There remains some areas that have captured attention from investors, including real estate, commercial infrastructure, processing industry, manufacturing, computer components – phone, and logistics.
Experts have therefore advised businesses to increase the proportion of using advanced technology and map out a strategic vision in terms of training high-quality human resources to seize upon opportunities to attract high-quality foreign investment in the near future.
