Workers produce sewing-machines at Juky Vietnam at the Tan Thuan Export Processing Zone. The HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority granted investment licences to 12 new FDI projects with total registered capital of US$223.2 million during the first three months of the year. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vu

HCM CITY  (Biz Hub) — HCM City's export processing and industrial zones received US$243.5 million in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) during the first quarter of 2014, up 97.3 per cent from last year.

The HCM City Export Processing and Industrial Zones Authority (Hepza) granted investment licences to 12 new FDI projects with total registered capital of $223.2 million during the period, up more than eight times from the same period last year.

Meanwhile, nine ongoing projects raised their existing capital by $20.3 million and the city granted investment licences to eight new projects.

Internal capital inflow to the zones reached almost VND713.3 billion ($33.91 million), a year-on-year increase of nearly 65 per cent.

Hepza has licensed 1,293 projects with total capital of over $8 billion to date, of which 514 are FDI projects worth $4.9 billion.

In the second quarter, Hepza plans to assist the Viet Nam – Japan Techno Park project, work harder to attract Japanese enterprises and accelerate the construction and expansion of the An Ha, Dong Nam and Tan Phu Trung industrial parks.

This year, the southern economic and business hub aims to attract $2.5 billion in FDI, 20 per cent higher than last year's figure. — VNS