Foreign direct investment (FDI) pledged in Viet Nam witnessed a significant yearly increase of 52 per cent to US$1.9 billion in the first month of this year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

January’s FDI disbursement also rose 9.3 per cent year-on-year to $1.55 billion, thoibaonganhang.vn reported, citing the ministry’s data.

Meanwhile, the capital pledged for stake acquisitions reached $761.8 million, up 114 per cent compared to the same month last year, the data noted.

One remarkable project was Japanese Kyoshin Viet Nam’s project which was allowed to raise its investment by $134.7 million. Based in HCM City, the factory specialises in manufacturing molding products and machinery.

Others included a $65-million logistics project funded by Katolec Global Logistics Viet Nam from Japan in the northern province of Ha Nam and a Chinese-financed textile chemical manufacturing project worth $60 million in the southern province of Tay Ninh.

As per the data, foreign-invested enterprises continued to record a trade surplus of $1.83 billion during the month despite modest decreases of 5.1 per cent and 1.3 per cent in export and import turnovers at $13.58 billion and $11.75 billion, respectively.

The manufacturing and processing sector retained its crown as the most attractive sector to foreign investors, accounting for $1.19 billion, or 62.4 per cent of total registered capital.

The science and technology sector beat the retail sector to rank second with $185.6 million, or 9.7 per cent, while the retail sector came third with $179 million, or 9.3 per cent.

Among 51 countries and territories investing in Viet Nam in January, Japan remained the leading investor with nearly $364 million, making up 19 per cent of the nation’s total FDI. It was followed by the Republic and Korea with $349 million, or 18.3 per cent, and China with $308 million, or 16.1 per cent.

Statistics showed that foreign investors pumped cash into 39 localities. Among them, HCM City attracted the lion’s share of FDI with $746 million, or to 39.1 per cent of the total capital pledged in the country. The southern province of Binh Duong and northern Hai Duong province were the runners-up with $240 million, or 12.5 per cent, and $126 million, or 6.5 per cent, respectively.

As of January 2019, the nation is home to more than 27,640 valid foreign-invested projects with capital totaling $340.1 billion. Over half of the FDI has been disbursed thus far.

According to the ministry, Vietnamese businesses invested only $1.25 million into five projects abroad in January.

Their overseas investments targeted wholesale and retail and science, technology and communication sectors in Singapore, Finland, Japan and the US. — VNS