The Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) announced on September 30 that Vietnam attracted over US$15 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first nine months of 2013, up 36.1 percent year on year, and slightly higher than the full-year target of US$13-14 billion.
FIA said as at September 20, 2013, the country licensed 872 fresh projects with a total registered investment capital of US$9.294 billion, up 34.9 percent over the same period of 2012, and allowed 340 existing projects to raise their investment capital by US$5.71 billion, up 37.9 percent year on year.
Foreign investors reported to have disbursed US$8.62 billion in the nine-month period, up 6.4 year on year.
In the brighter picture of FDI attraction, science and technology ranked third among 18 sectors with FDI in the January – September period thanks to high jump in August and September.
In bright picture of attracting FDI, the field of professional activities, science and technology are attracting attention when in August and September , this sector has moved up to No. 3 in the 18 sectors attracting foreign investment .
Thus, there was a strong shift in FDI flows. In the first eight months, science and technology sector attracted 96 new FDI projects with a total registered capital of US$334.66 million. In September, this sector saw 30 more projects, which brought FDI projects in this field to 126 in nine months with US$380 million of registered capital in combination. This was a very encouraging figure as compared with US$99 million in this sector in 2012.
FIA Deputy Director Vu Van Chung said the amount of FDI capital rose in the first nine months from a year ago but the proportion of FDI capital in total social investment was on the decline. In the first nine months of this year, FDI capital accounted for just 23 percent of the total social investment while the rate in the same period of 2012 was 25 percent.
Besides, the scale of many FDI projects was small. He said “If the number of small FDI projects decline in one or two years, the amount of FDI attracted will also be affected. This will affect our FDI attraction planning as well as production, business and export targets.”
Processing and manufacturing industry led all sectors in attracting FDI with 400 new projects and US$12.696 billion in both total new and additional capital, accounting for 86.4 percent of the total amount. Real estate sector followed with US$588.11 million, accounting for 4.7 percent.
According to FIA, 50 provinces and cities licensed FDI projects from January to September. Thanh Hoa province led the rest with US$2.92 billion, of which US$2.8 billion came from existing Nghi Son petrochemical project in Nghi Son district. Thai Nguyen province followed with US$2.158 billion.
Japan topped the list of 48 countries and territories investing Vietnam, with US$4.736 billion, accounting for 31.6 percent of the total registered FDI, followed by Singapore and South Korea.
Despite outperformance in 2013, a tough outlook was still anticipated for 2014. If Vietnam lack good solutions to promote existing projects, its export plans will be affected. Remarking on this issue, Mr Dao Quang Thu, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment told FIA to work with relevant agencies to grasp problems facing FDI projects. “It is necessary to invite more business associations to investment-related meetings to have more valuable opinions as they represent enterprises which are directly affected by policies,” he stressed.
Dinh Thanh
Đăng ký: VietNam News
