FDI down 22 per cent in January

During the month, processing and manufacturing industries made up 47.6 per cent of the nation's total FDI, luring $189 million, while the real estate sector accounted for 44.4 per cent, attracting $176.3 million, and other sectors shared the remaining 8 per cent, absorbing $31.8 million.— File Photo

HA NOI (Biz Hub) — The country attracted US$397.1 million in foreign direct investment (FDI) during January 2014, down 22 per cent against the same period last year, the General Statistics Office reported.

Forty new foreign-invested projects, capitalised at $211 million, were granted licences, representing yearly decreases of 51 per cent in the number of projects and 53 per cent in the level of capital invested.

Six other projects, however, were given permission to add a cumulative $186.1 million to their existing investment.

There was good news, though, as January's FDI disbursement saw a slight increase of 3.3 per cent to $465 million, the office said.

New projects were licensed in 12 provinces and cities. Among these localities, southern Ba Ria – Vung Tau Province took the lead in terms of FDI attraction with $61.5 million.

This was followed by the northern provinces of Thai Nguyen and Vinh Phuc, with $31.3 million and $31 million, respectively, as well as southern Binh Duong Province with $28.9 million.

Officials report that the majority of January FDI capital came from South Korea ($88.8 million), Malaysia ($27.2 million), France ($19.5 million) and Belgium ($17 million).

Last year, FDI topped $21.6 billion, up 54.5 per cent, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Of this, $11.5 billion has already been brought into the country, an increase of nearly 10 per cent over the previous year.

Analysts said this indicated that foreign investors feel confident about investing in Viet Nam, despite the continuing economic woes.

Foreign-invested enterprises last year added $88.5 billion to the country's exports, a rise of 22.4 per cent from the previous year. — VNS