BVI foreign investment in Vietnam

The British Virgin Islands is a leading foreign investor country not only in China. The BVI has strong positions also in other countries, especially in Asian region. Today let’s have a look at Vietnam.

The Law on Foreign Investment in Vietnam was officially introduced on the 1st of January 1998 and up to the end of 2004, foreign investment into Vietnam experienced a period of 17 years and enjoyed great results. In accordance with statistics, over 5,000 projects are still in effect in Vietnam with a total capital of $45.5 billions. The half of these projects are under operation with the total realized capital of $26 billions.

The foreign investment sector in Vietnam contributes to the country about 15% GDP and approximately 17% development fund. Foreign investment projects created 739 thousand jobs.
In the first 2 months of 2006, Vietnam has attracted US$1.32 billion in foreign direct investment. Of the total, $1.18 billion came from 113 newly licensed projects, an increase of 16% in project numbers and 15% in registered capital over the same period. $135 million was added to 38 existing foreign direct investment (FDI) projects, a year-on-year increase of 41%.
In February 55 projects with registered capital of $765 million were granted licences. 27 projects added $110 million to their investments. In the first 2 months of 2006, the biggest investors in Vietnam were South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, USA, as well as the British Virgin Islands. Most investment capital went to the real estate and industry sectors. In the same period, HCM City attracted the largest FDI with $645 million from 40 projects.

In the first half of 2005, the BVI companies have invested 35.28 million US dollars in 11 projects in Vietnam. Till the end of 2004, the British Virgin Islands companies participated in 212 projects with registered capital 2.4 billion US dollars and executed realized capital 1.14 billion US dollars. It placed the BVI on the 6th position in foreign investor’s list after Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Hong Kong. The foreign investor’s position of the BVI is not as strong as in China, but it is also very considerable.

One of the latest projects is MegaStar Media, a joint venture between Envoy Media Partners Limited (BVI) and local Phuong Nam Corp that is going to increase capital to develop multiscreen cinema exhibition centres in Vietnam. The BVI - Vietnamese joint venture will receive a loan of US$25 million from the ANZ (Australia and New Zealand Banking Group) in order to develop around 10 cinema centres across Vietnam. Prudential Fund Management Co sources, structures and arranges the fund of this project.