FDI to Vietnam totals $19.2bn in 10 months

Foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow to Vietnam in the first ten months of 2013 reached 19.2 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 65.5 percent, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment on Friday. As of Oct. 20, as many as 1,050 new FDI projects have been licensed with a total registered capital of 13.1 billion U.S. dollars, 79 percent higher than last year\'s level. Meanwhile, 393 existing projects expanded their capital of 6.1 billion dollars. Most FDI projects were in the manufacturing and processing sectors, which bagging 14.9 billion dollars, accounting for 77.6 percent of the total registered amount. The electricity distribution and production industry attracted two billion dollars (10.4 percent), and the remaining amount by other industries. During the reviewed period, the northern Thai Nguyen province took the lead nationwide in FDI attraction with nearly 3.39 billion dollars, followed by the southeastern Binh Thuan province with 2.03 billion dollars, northern Hai Phong with 1.84 billion dollars, and central Binh Dinh province with 1.09 billion dollars. The Republic of Korea tops the list of Vietnam\'s largest foreign investors, with its total investment worth more than 3.58 billion dollars, followed by Singapore with 2.72 billion dollars, China with 2.2 billion dollars and Japan with 1.15 billion dollars. In the first ten months of 2013, the FDI sector pocketed 72.8 billion dollars from its exports, a year-on-year increase of 22.3 percent, while it spent 61.9 billion dollars for imports, up 25.7 percent. As a result, the sector recorded a trade surplus of 10.9 billion dollars during the reviewed period. As of Oct. 20, the FDI projects disbursed about 9.6 billion dollars, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.4 percent, reported the ministry.