HANOI, Aug. 2 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam attracted 8.03 billion U.S. dollars in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first seven months of this year, a sharp decline of 33.1 percent year-on-year, reported the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) on Thursday.
During the seven-month period, there were 584 newly-licensed FDI projects from 49 countries and regions investing into the country. Of which, the manufacturing and processing sector had 258 projects, with newly registered and expanded investment of 5.5 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 68.5 percent of the country' s total FDI; real estate had seven projects, with 1.61 billion U.S. dollars (20.1 percent); retail and repair sector had 102 projects, with 314.2 million U.S. dollars (3.9 percent).
According to MPI, the FDI inflows into Vietnam had changed during the period, with more quality projects in the manufacturing and processing sector, and an increase in the implemented capital.
The FDI projects have disbursed a total of 6.25 billion U.S. dollars so far this year, a slight decrease of 0.8 percent year-on- year, but it still met the foreign investors' requirement in the context of global economic crisis.
In the first seven months, the FDI sector's export turnover reached 39 billion U.S. dollars, up 36.6 percent year-on-year and accounting for 62 percent of the country's total export value, while its import value hit 32.9 billion U.S. dollars, up 25.3 percent and accounting for 52.2 percent of the country's import value. Overall, the FDI sector gained a trade surplus of 6.1 billion U.S. dollars.
So far this year, there are 49 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Japan took the lead, with a total newly- registered and expanded investment of 4.29 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 53.4 percent of the country's total FDI value. Samoa ranked second with 889.8 million U.S. dollars (11.1 percent) and South Korea as the third with 607.3 million U.S. dollars.
The southern Binh Duong province attracted the most FDI capital nationwide with 1.8 billion U.S. dollars (accounting for 27.6 percent of the country's total FDI value), followed by southern Dong Nai province with 956.8 million U.S. dollars (18.1 percent) and northern Hai Phong City with 897.6 million U.S. dollars.
Vietnam set a target to lure 17 billion U.S. dollars in FDI in 2012, over last year's 14.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to MPI.
