Foreign investors have so far this year poured 21.6 billion USD in Vietnam, a year-on-year increase of 54.5 percent.

As many as 1,275 new projects have been licensed with a total registered capital of 14.3 billion USD, while 472 projects added 7.3 billion USD to their existing capital, a year-on-year increases of 70.5 percent and 30.8 percent, respectively.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), an estimated 11.5 billion USD from the FDI projects has been disbursed in the period, up 9.9 percent over the same period last year.

The growth is attributed to efforts by the Government, ministries and localities in improving the business environment and simplifying administrative procedures to attract more foreign investors, said Do Nhat Hoang, Head of the Foreign Investment Department under the MPI.

It also shows that Vietnam remains an attractive and potential destination for foreign investors.

The presence of large projects, especially those worth 1 billion USD or more contributed to the over fulfilling of the annual target in FDI attraction and disbursement in the period.

Exports from FDI enterprises also made remarkable contributions to Vietnam’s economic growth this year as their turnover reached 88.4 billion USD, up 22.4 percent against the last year’s figure.

Ha Quang Tuyen, Head of the National Account System under the General Statistics Office (GSO) said production and exports of the FDI enterprises make up about 20 percent of the country’s GDP in 2013, while the figure for 1992 was only 2 percent.

This year, Vietnam is estimated to have a trade surplus of almost 900 million USD for the second consecutive year after exports were estimated at 132.2 billion USD and imports, at 131.3 billion USD.

According to a report of the MPI on Vietnam’s FDI attraction over the last 25 years, from 2003, the exports by FDI firms surpassed those by local firms and became a major factor to speed up the overall export, as it made up about 64 percent of the country’s total export turnover in 2012 and 66.87 percent in 2013.

The contribution by large FDI enterprises such Samsung, Nokia, Intel and LG is also considerable in the change of the structure of exports.

In addition, the investment poured by FDI businesses into the social development stood at the highest rate, showing that the FDI enterprises play an importance role in the national economy.

Northern Thai Nguyen province led localities in FDI attraction this year, bringing in 3.3 billion USD, making up 16.1 percent of the total.

Central Thanh Hoa province came in second with 2.9 billion USD, accounting for 14 percent of the total.

Northern Hai Phong city took third place with 2.6 billion USD.

Source: VNA