Vietnam has attracted 8.8 billion USD in foreign direct investment in the year-to-date, an 8 percent fall year-on-year, the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Agency reported.

In the first seven months 1,068 new foreign projects with an investment of 6.92 billion USD received investment certificates, marginally up in money terms from last year.

What has dragged down the overall FDI figure is a steep 29.8 percent fall in capital augmentation by operational foreign companies as 341 of them applied to bring in an additional 1.88 billion USD.

Most of the FDI flowed into 16 sectors, including processing, manufacturing, and real estate.

The Republic of Korea remained the top investor followed by the UK.

FDI disbursement in the past seven months reached 7.4 billion USD, up 8.8 percent over the same period of last year.

HCM City was the most attractive destination as 2.4 billion USD found its way there. It was followed by the neighbouring provinces of Binh Duong with 1.11 billion USD and Dong Nai with 1.1 billion USD.

Exports by foreign businesses jumped by 15.1 percent to nearly 64.7 billion USD. Their imports grew even faster – by 23.1 percent to 56.7 billion USD.

FDI in Ho Chi Minh City doubles

The flow of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Ho Chi Minh City thus far this year has reached 2.5 billion USD, up 2.3 times from the same period last year, according to the municipal People’s Committee.

The city has licensed 284 new projects with a total investment of 2.02 billion USD, up 35.2 percent and 210 percent annually, respectively.

An additional 456.5 million USD was injected into 89 ongoing projects, an annual increase of 410 percent in capital and 48.3 percent in the number of projects.

The majority of the capital is in real estate sector investments with four projects worth 1.31 billion USD, followed by industrial projects with 491.9 million USD and trade projects with 112.5 million USD, among others.

The UK is currently the biggest investor in the city with five projects worth 1.2 billion USD, accounting for 59.2 percent of the new registered capital.

The British Virgin Island trails the UK with 7 projects worth 306.5 million USD or 15.1 percent, followed by the Republic of Korea with 61 projects and 210.5 million USD and Singapore with 47 projects and 100.8 million USD.

As many as 19 projects worth 69.7 million USD were dissolved or halted in the reviewed period.-

Bac Ninh's FDI climbs to 7.83 billion USD

The cumulative foreign investment in the northern province of Bac Ninh was worth 7.83 billion USD as of June 20, ranking it ninth out of the country's 63 provinces and cities, the Foreign Investment Agency said.

In an online report on July 23, the agency said Bac Ninh ranked third out of 11 localities in the Red River Delta.

The manufacturing and processing sector accounted for 7.12 billion USD or 91 percent of the FDI, with the property sector ranking second with around 332 million USD.

Almost all the FDI projects are wholly foreign-invested, with the rest being joint ventures, joint stock companies or business cooperation contracts.

Singapore topped the list of foreign investors, accounting for 35.6 percent of FDI, followed closely by the Republic of Korea with 33.1 percent and Japan with 10.5 percent.

Singapore-registered Samsung Electronics' 2.5 billion USD project is the largest foreign-invested one.

The second largest investment is 1 billion USD by the RoK's Samsung Display Company Limited.

VNA