The southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City attracted more 4.69 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first seven months of 2018, a year-on-year rise of 70.5 percent.

According to the municipal Department of Planning and Investment, the city granted new investment licenses to 553 projects worth 508.25 million USD in the period under review. Besides, it also allowed 148 existing projects to increase capital by 453.38 million USD, a respective year-on-year increase of 27.6 percent and 13.3 percent.

Local authorities also approved 1,628 foreign investors to carry out procedures to contribute capital, purchase shares, and buy back capital of 3.73 billion USD contributed by domestic enterprises.

The Republic of Korea made up the lion’s share of foreign investment in HMC City with 30 percent, followed by Singapore (22 percent), Norway (13.8 percent), and Japan (10.4 percent).

Investment was mainly poured into real estate (47.6 percent), science and technology (19.5 percent), wholesale and retail and repair of automobiles, motorcycles and other vehicles (8.1 percent), processing and manufacturing industry (7.7 percent), accommodation and catering services (4.2 percent).

In the January-July period, the city granted establishment licenses to 24,303 new domestic businesses with a total registered capital of 315 trillion VND (13.4 million USD), an annual rise of 5.8 percent and 6 percent respectively.-VNA