VietNamNet Bridge – Fresh foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals in Vietnam last year amounted to US$24.1 billion, up from US$22.76 billion announced more than two months ago, according to the latest report of the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA).

Workers are seen at a Honda factory in Vietnam. FDI capital pledged for new and operational projects in Vietnam totaled US$24.1 billion last year, according to the latest report of the Foreign Investment Agency – Photo: Quoc Hung

Throughout 2015, the country attracted 2,120 new FDI projects worth a combined US$16.34 billion, down 1% versus 2014 but 918 operational projects injected an additional US$7.77 billion, up 43.5% from the previous year, resulting in total new FDI approvals reaching US$24.11 billion last year, up 10% against 2014 and 9.6% higher than the target.

The old FDI figure was based on data the FIA collected from early last year to mid-December.

Last year saw few big-ticket projects approved in the nation. There were only four projects worth over US$1 billion each while 32 projects had capital of over US$100 million each, 74 projects with over US$50 million each and 363 projects with more than US$10 million each. The rest were capitalized at less than US$10 million each and accounted for 88% of all the new projects.

According to the FIA, which is under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the average capital of the FDI projects was around US$7.9 million last year. The manufacturing-processing sector came first in terms of FDI approvals with US$16.4 billion, making up 68% of the total. This sector had 1,012 new projects.

The sector of producing and distributing electricity, gas, water and air-conditioners came second with US$2.79 billion (11.6%), followed by the real estate sector with US$2.39 billion (9.9%).

The report showed that FDI companies disbursed US$14.5 billion last year, up 16% from a year earlier and 11.5% above the target.

The FDI sector posted export revenue of US$114.3 billion in 2015, rising by 12.9% year-on-year and accounting for 70.5% of the country’s total. Foreign-invested enterprises have played a larger role in Vietnam’s export performance in recent years, accounting for 54.1% of the nation’s export revenues in 2010, 56.9% in 2011, 64% in 2012, 66.9% in 2013 and 68% in 2014.

There were 62 countries and territories investing in Vietnam last year. South Korea took the lead with capital pledges amounting to US$6.98 billion, 28.9 % of the total. Malaysia followed with US$2.47 billion (10.2%) and Japan with US$1.8 billion (7.4%).

Excluding offshore oil exploitation, FDI companies invested in 52 provinces and cities nationwide. HCMC took the lead with US$4.1 billion, followed by Bac Ninh Province with US$3.66 billion and Binh Duong Province with US$3.12 billion.

SGT