Cambodian telecom firm Metfone, a subsidiary of Việt Nam's mobile carrier Viettel Group. Telecommunications was among leading sectors for Việt Nam's overseas investment. — Photo www.phnompenhpost.com

The latest updates from the Viet Nam Foreign Investment Agency revealed that Viet Nam invested US$3.97 million abroad in January, more than three times higher than the same month last year.

Seven new projects were granted investment licences, with total registered capital of $3.83 million and one raised its capital by nearly $140,000.

Viet Nam’s overseas investment in January mainly poured into retail and wholesale (accounting for 71.8 per cent of the total registered capital), construction (3.4 per cent), manufacturing and processing (3.7 per cent), and telecommunications (3.4 per cent).

Four countries received investment from Viet Nam in January. Among them, the US was the leading receiver with total investment of more than $3.53 million, followed by Japan with an investment worth $182,400, Cambodia with $150,000 and Republic of Korea with $100,000.

In 2019, Viet Nam invested a total of more than $508 million in 32 countries and territories, of which $403 million was poured into 164 new projects and 29 projects increased their capitals by a total of nearly $105 million.

The retail and wholesale industry was the leading sector for Vietnamese overseas investment with $121.6 million in 2019.

Other attractive sectors were agro-forestry-fishery and science and technology.

Australia was the top destination for Viet Nam’s overseas investment last year, followed by the US and Cambodia.

Since 1989, Viet Nam had so far invested more than $22 billion abroad, mainly in agro-forestry-fishery, energy and telecommunications sectors. — VNS