According to latest data by the Foreign Investment Department (Ministry of Planning and Investment), as of March 20, 2022, registered foreign investment capital into Vietnam reached over US$8.9 billion, or 87.9% of the amount compared to the same period in 2021.

In the first quarter of the year, there were 322 newly licenced projects, up 37.6% year on year, with a total registered capital of over $3.21 billion, down 55. 5% year on year.

It is understandable that newly registered investment capital in the first three months of 2022 decreased sharply compared to the same period of last year. In the first quarter of last year, many large projects with over $100 million of capital were licenced.

These projects accounted for 75.3% of the total newly registered capital in the first quarter of 2021, including Long An I and II LNG Power Plant projects with an investment capital of over $3.1 billion and O Mon II thermal power project worth over $1.3 billion.

This year, only one-billion-dollar project has been licensed – the $1.32 billion project of LEGO Manufacturing Vietnam (Denmark) Co., Ltd., in Binh Duong.

In the first quarter of 2022, 228 projects increased investment capital (up 41.6% year on year), with the total registered capital up by more than $4.06 billion (up 93.3% year on year).

There were 734 times of capital contribution and share purchase by foreign investors (100% up year on year), with total value of capital of over $1.63 billion (over 2 times more than that of the same period last year). 

Meanwhile, disbursed capital of foreign-invested projects in the first three months of 2022 reached $4.42 billion, up 7.8% over the same period of 2021.

The Foreign Investment Department believed that the opening of tourism from March 15, along with a visa-free policy for some countries, and capital movement of European investors due to the influence of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, will affect the attraction of foreign investment to Vietnam in the coming time.

From another perspective, the Foreign Investment Agency said that in the first quarter of 2022, foreign investors invested in 18 out of 21 national economic sectors. The processing and manufacturing industry took the lead with a total investment of over $5.3 billion, accounting for 59.5% of the total registered investment capital. Real estate ranked second with a total investment of nearly $2.7 billion, accounting for 30.3% of total registered investment capital.

Singapore ranked first with a total investment of nearly $2.29 billion, accounting for 25.7% of total investment capital in Vietnam, down 50.1% over the same period in 2021, followed by South Korea with nearly $1.61 billion, making up 18% of total investment capital, up 35.6% year on year.

With the LEGO project of over $1.3 billion, Denmark ranked third with a total registered investment capital of nearly $1.32 billion, accounting for 14.8% total investment.

Le Ha