HANOI, Feb. 13 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's investment in foreign countries is likely to increase to over 500 million U.S. dollars each year in the 2008-2010 period from 391.2 million dollars in 2007, local newspaper Vietnam News reported Wednesday.

    Earlier this year, the state-owned Vietnam Motors Industry Corporation announced a plan to invest some 200 million dollars in four projects in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. The projects involve in production of cement mixers, light trucks and motorbikes.

    The state-run Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group has established a representative office in Laos in preparation for exploring oil and gas there. Some other Vietnamese enterprises operating in the fields of food and wood processing, and telecommunications are also preparing to make investment abroad.

    Vietnamese firms last year invested a total of 391.2 million dollars overseas in 64 projects, bringing their combined investment abroad in the 1988-2007 period to roughly 1.4 billion dollars, according to Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and Investment.