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Vietnam’s foreign direct investment falls 81% amid global slump
Pledges of foreign investment into Vietnam and planned capital increases for existing projects fell 81 percent in the seven months to July from a year earlier, the Foreign Investment Agency said.
Total investment pledged dropped to US$10.1 billion, the agency said in a statement posted on its website yesterday. The Southeast Asian nation granted licenses for 385 new projects with total registered capital of more than $5.4 billion, and investors of 125 existing projects were allowed to increase their capital by a total of $4.7 billion.
Vietnam’s economic growth slowed to 3.9 percent in the first half of this year from a full-year expansion of 6.2 percent in 2008 as the worst global recession since the Great Depression hurt exports and investment. Disbursement of foreign investment in the first seven months fell 22.5 percent to $4.6 billion, the investment agency said.
The Vietnamese government is targeting economic expansion of more than 5 percent this year, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said earlier this month.
Vietnam expects to receive $12 billion of pledged foreign investment in 2009, Phan Huu Thang, director of the Ministry of Planning & Investment’s foreign-investment department, said in February. Disbursements may total $8 billion this year, the investment agency said Tuesday.
thanhnien, bloomberg
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