VietNamNet Bridge – Despite global fluctuations in 2015, Vietnam has attracted a great deal of foreign direct investment capital. By the end of last month, newly registered or expanded FDI for Vietnam totaled over US$20 billion.

The achievement is attributed to Vietnam’s efforts to boost institutional reforms and international integration.  

The stabilization of the macro-economy and domestic currency, a low rate of inflation, and improvements in transport and social infrastructure are major factors in attracting foreign investors to Vietnam.

Addressing the Vietnam Global Investment Forum held in Hanoi in September, Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh said Vietnam’s investment environment has greatly improved, especially its legal framework.

The revised laws on investment and enterprise adopted last year have attracted new investors. The investment law has simplified investment verification and registration, and reduced the number of conditional trading areas. One breakthrough in the new enterprise law is no longer restricting the number of fields a business can trade in.

2015 saw a diversion of investment flow from finance, securities, and real estate to the energy industry, the support industry, processing, manufacturing, and particularly to agricultural production.

In recent years, Binh Duong has targeted US$1 billion per year in foreign direct investment. To that end, Binh Duong has selected investment projects matching local development needs and called on leading investment groups to pour money into high-yield industries like electronics, pharmaceuticals, and precision machinery.

Mai Hung Dung, director of the provincial Department of Planning and Investment, said, “We should restrict investment projects that cause environmental pollution and are labor-intensive. We need to encourage investors to use environment-friendly technologies even outside industrial zones. This is particularly important for northern provinces. Meanwhile, southern provinces still need to prioritize investment projects in service industries.”

In 2015, foreign investors invested in 18 areas, particularly processing and manufacturing. There were 892 newly registered projects and 491 expanded projects.

With a total investment of US$6.3 billion, the Republic of Korea lead 57 countries and territories who invested in Vietnam, followed by Malaysia, Japan, and the British Virgin Islands.

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at the Vietnam Global Investment Forum that despite difficulties Vietnam has maintained an average GDP growth rate of 5.9% over the past five years. 2015 saw the highest growth - 6.5%.

PM Dung noted that FTAs have opened up an immense free trading space between Vietnam and 55 partner countries, including G7 and G20 members.

“Vietnam is reforming public investment procedures to facilitate domestic and foreign investment in infrastructure development, prioritizing high-tech projects, and projects involving support industries and services. A decree on public-private partnerships (PPP) has encouraged private sector involvement in infrastructure building, especially through FDI,” according to the government leader.

In 2015, Vietnam signed 10 free trade agreements (FTA) including recent FTAs with the Republic of Korea and the Eurasian Economic Union. Vietnam has also concluded negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement.

VOV5