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FDI capital likely to hit 50 billion USD in 2008
The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam is likely to exceed 50 billion USD in 2008, more than double last year’s amount of 20.3 billion USD, according to the National Centre for Socio-economic Information and Forecast (NCSIF).
The prediction comes amid foreign investors’ increasingly optimism about the country’s economic prospect and their hope to early cash on the high growth of Vietnam’s economy after the current difficult stage.
The NCSIF, which operates under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), said the country’s disbursed FDI capital will possibly hit 10 billion USD this year compared with just 4.6 billion in 2007.
Meanwhile, total official development assistance (ODA) commitment for this year is expected to top 3.1 billion USD.
Statistics released by the MPI’s Foreign Investment Agency provided a firm foundation for the forecast.
Vietnam attracted more than 47 billion USD in the first eight months of the year, including 46.3 billion USD from newly-licensed projects, a 5-fold rise over the same period last year, and the rest additional investment to operational projects, a year-on-year increase of 45 percent.
FDI disbursement between January-August posted a record of 7 billion USD.
It is remarkable that the FDI flux has shifted from the service industry to industrial production, demonstrated in two “super projects” totalling 14 billion USD – the metallurgy plant in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau province invested by the Taiwanese group Formosa and an oil refinery in central Thanh Hoa province co-funded by Japanese and Kuwait firms.
The trend is in line with the government’s policy to focus investment on production in an effort to ensure the country’s sustainable growth.
In the eight-month period, ODA remained an important capital source for Vietnam’s infrastructure development and environmental protection with contracts worth close to 1.7 billion USD signed and over 1.3 billion USD disbursed.
Donors’ positive assessment of Vietnam’s ODA use has helped the country absorb more capital from this source in the years to come.
The Republic of Korea’s Government recently agreed to provide Vietnam with soft loans worth 1 billion USD in total for the 2008-2011 period.
Meanwhile, Switzerland continued to list Vietnam as its aid recipient from 2009-2012, although the European country planned to reduce the number of beneficiaries.
In a move to draw in more FDI capital, the MPI has spared no efforts to improve policy, infrastructures and human resources, shorten licensing procedures, and speed up the disbursement for projects.
VNA
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