Vietnam Attracts More than Double FDI Level in January-May 2008, BVI Ranking the Second

The Foreign Investment Agency of Vietnam has published a report on foreign direct investments in the economy of the country, from January to May 2008. The Agency informed that the level of Foreign Direct Investments attracted in this period was 2.6 times higher than in the same period last year, and reached $15.3 billion.

It is stated in the report that 130 foreign investment projects worth a cumulative $7.5 billion received licences in May, so the total number of new projects licensed this year was 324, worth more than $14.7 billion. Additionally, 132 FDI projects raised their combined capital by $605 mln this year, representing an increase of 67% over the same period of 2007.

FDI increase was attributed to a dozen of newly-licensed projects, which have large-scale investment of over $1 billion. The largest foreign investment project of the reported period is the $4.2 billion tourist centre, five-star hotel and entertainment complex being built by the Canada-based Asian Coast Development Ltd. in the southern province of Vietnam. This project, together with two others at a combined worth of $4.23 billion, moved Canada from the 22nd to the first place in the list of FDI investors. As in the previous statistics published, British Virgin Islands are in the second place with $2.69 billion, and Singapore with $2.23 billion is the third.

$13 billion (83% of the total FDI for the reported period) of the total FDI amount went to the service sector, $2.35 billion were invested into the industry and construction sectors, the remainder going into the agro-forestry-fishery sectors of Vietnam's economy.