A total of 10.15 billion U.S. dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI) has been disbursed in the first 10 months of 2014, up 5.9 percent year-on-year, said Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment on Friday.
During the 10-month period, Vietnam is expected to attract around 13.7 billion U.S. dollars of FDI, down 28.8 percent year-on- year, said FIA on its website.
As of Oct. 20, there have been 1,306 newly licensed projects nationwide with total registered capital of 9.95 billion U.S. dollars, down 23.9 percent compared to the same period of 2013. Meanwhile, some 3.74 billion U.S. dollars was added to 469 projects, down 39.1 percent year-on-year.
Manufacturing and processing are likely to enjoy most attention of foreign investors during the January-October period, with investment of 9.7 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 70.8 percent of the total national FDI. Real estate business ranks second with an investment of 1.22 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 8.9 percent.
Construction is projected to sit third with 1.03 billion U.S. dollars, making up 7.5 percent of total FDI of Vietnam during the period.
Since the beginning of 2014, as many as 56 countries and regions carried out projects in Vietnam. Among those, South Korea tops Vietnam's FDI with 3.6 billion U.S. dollars in 10-month period, accounting for 26.3 percent of the country's total foreign investment.
South Korea is estimated to be followed by Singapore and China' s Hong Kong with the capital of 2.64 billion and 1.67 billion U.S. dollars to Vietnam respectively.
FDI projects have been present in 50 localities across Vietnam in the first 10 months. Southern Ho Chi Minh City is likely to attract most foreign investors with the total capital of 2.85 billion U.S. dollars. Northern Bac Ninh province and southern Dong Nai province rank second and third with 1.38 billion U.S. dollars and 1.37 billion U.S. dollars.
Several large scale projects which receive licenses in January- October period include Samsung CE Complex in Ho Chi Minh City ( with registered investment of 1.4 billion U.S. dollars), Samsung Display in Bac Ninh province (around 1 billion U.S. dollars) and Texhong Ngan Ha in northern Quang Ninh province (300 million U.S. dollars) among others.
During the period, the FDI sector is estimated to earn 82.48 billion U.S. dollars from exports, up 13.6 percent year-on-year, accounting for 67 percent of the country's export revenue.
At the same time, the sector is likely to spend 68.66 billion U. S. dollars, up 10.7 percent year-on-year on imports, making up 57 percent of Vietnam's total import revenue.