Vietnam attracted an additional US$3.41 billion in FDI (foreign direct investment), including both new investment and increased capital of the existing projects, in the first seven months of 2006, reported the Department of Foreign Investment of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Specifically, in the first seven months, Vietnam licensed 667 new FDI projects with a combined registered capital of US$2.77 billion, a 32 percent growth over the same period in 2005 in terms of registered capital. Construction and industry has attracted 69.4 percent and 57.9 percent of the total number of new projects and total new registered investment, respectively, while the service sector lured 25.2 and 41.3 percent, and the agricultural, forestry and fishery sector 5.4 and 0.8 percent.
Ho Chi Minh City was the top FDI attractor with 34 percent of the total number of new projects and 36.9 percent of the new registered capital, while Hanoi became the second largest FDI attractor (14.7 and 18 percent), Ba Ria - Vung Tau the third largest (1.4 and 11.5 percent), and Hai Duong the fourth largest FDI attractor (2.9 and 4.2 percent).
32 countries and territories invested in Vietnam in the first seven months of 2006, with Hong Kong ranking first among these foreign investors accounting for 22.3 percent of the total new registered capital, the Republic of Korea second (17.7 percent), the USA third (16 percent), and Japan fourth (11.5 percent).
The first seven months saw foreign owned businesses invest US$2.23 billion, 19.4 percent higher than the first seven months of 2005. Nguyen Anh Tuan, the deputy head of the Department of Foreign Investment, said that a goal is for the invested FDI capital to reach US$3.7 billion this whole year and obtain an annual growth of 15-20 percent in the next several years.
Tuan is optimistic about FDI development in Vietnam explaining that a large number of FDI projects are being formed or assessed and many foreign companies came to Vietnam to prospect investment opportunities in the country. Since early this year, Japanese investors have constructed and opened numerous factories in Vietnam.
Tuan said that apart from its factory in the Thang Long industrial park, Canon Group opened two more factories in Bac Ninh provinces, while Matsushita is constructing two more factories, and Terumo - a medical equipment manufacturer - is starting its project in the Quang Minh industrial zone in Vinh Phuc province. Meanwhile, Sumitomo Group has finished the Thang Long industrial zone project’s second phase and is now looking for a place to open a new industrial zone to attract more Japanese investors to Vietnam, he said. Sumitomo is proposing that the Vietnamese authorities allow it to develop a tourist, urban, industrial and fishery complex at an estimated cost of billions of US dollars in Khanh Hoa province.
A company from the Republic of Korea wants to develop a shipyard, which is expected to be the largest facility of its kind in Vietnam, in Khanh Hoa province. The US$600 million Intel project from the US has attracted some other smaller American investors to Vietnam to work in this large project, while many other large investors have done the same. Tuan believes that Vietnam will be able to fulfill its goal of attracting US$6.5 billion of FDI in 2006.
MPI is considering the proposals of seven FDI projects with a combined capital of more than US$4 billion. These projects include a US$1.94 billion steel production and metallurgy project of the SHT Iron & Steel Group, a US$1.04 billion steel production project of the Tycoons Worldwide Group (Taiwan), a US$600 million project to develop the Van Phong general economic zone in Khanh Hoa province of the Sumitomo Group (Japan), a US$570 million project to develop an international hippodrome in Vinh Yen in Vinh Phuc province of the G.O. Max Group (the Republic of Korea), a US$175 million mining and metallurgy project, and others.
Nam Hai
Vietnamese
