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Vietnam draws record US$45 billion of foreign investment
Vietnam received a record US$45.3 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) pledges in the first seven months – more than double the total of last year, the government said Tuesday.
Taiwan topped the list of investors with FDI pledges worth $8.4 billion, a figure that includes a $7.8 billion steel plant by the Formosa Group, said the state-run General Statistics Office (GSO).
Next came Japan – the partner with Kuwait in a $6-billion oil refinery project – with a total of $7.2 billion in FDI pledges, and Malaysia with $5.1 billion, said the GSO.
The inflow of pledged capital comes in the year after Vietnam joined the World Trade Organization, promising to level the playing field for foreign companies in a variety of industrial sectors.
From January to July, Vietnam’s government licensed 654 new projects worth a total of $44.5 billion and approved $788.6 million in additional spending for 188 existing projects.
The total FDI pledges of $45.3 billion represent a 373 percent rise over the same period last year and more than double the record $21.3 billion in FDI pledged for the whole of last year.
Of the total, 381 projects worth $21.5 billion were in the industrial sector, 243 projects worth $22.8 billion in services, and the remainder in agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, said the GSO.
Disbursed FDI for the seven-month period reached $6 billion, up 43 percent against the same period last year, the GSO said.
The GSO also said that Vietnam’s industrial production in the first seven months of the year reached more than VND380 trillion ($22 billion), up by 16.4 percent year-on-year.
Thanhnien
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