Capital from tax havens flowing to Vietnam

A report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) shows that US$18.103 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) capital was registered in the first 11 months of the year. Sixty-eight countries and territories have FDI projects in Vietnam, with the Republic of Korea (RoK) the biggest investor.

Singapore ranks second among foreign investors, with US$2.05 billion worth of registered capital, which accounts for 11.3% of total investment capital in Vietnam. To date, Singapore has been the third largest investor in Vietnam, after RoK and Japan, with US$38 billion worth of investment.

Over many years, Singapore has been considered a tax haven for investors who want to start a business, or for those who want to set up branches and expand business. The administrative procedures applied in the country are favorable while the taxes and costs to maintain businesses are at low levels.

In Vietnam, Singaporean investors are well known for seven VSIP industrial parks.

With US$1.3 billion worth of registered capital, Hong Kong ranked fifth among the largest foreign investors in the first 11 months, raising total capital it has committed to US$16.6 billion so far, which would be used to implement 1,152 projects.

The open business environment, the high security level and low tax rate all make Hong Kong a base for investors to set up their facilities and allocate capital to other countries.

British Virgin Islands (BVI), the famous tax heaven, registered US$723 million worth of FDI in the last 11 months, raising the total committed capital to US$21.35 billion.

BVI now has more than 850,000 businesses, the number of which is much higher than the population of 28,000. The businesses there have been reaching out to many countries, including Vietnam.

The largest investment projects from BVI include VinaCapital trade center (US$325 million), GVD Vietnam 1 (US$300 million), Worldon Vietnam (US$300 million) and CJ CGV Vietnam.

Businesses from tax havens not only pour capital into Vietnam under the FDI mode, but they are also interested in Vietnamese equities. A report showed that since July 1, 2015, foreign investors have contributed US$2.9 billion worth of capital to 3,141 Vietnamese enterprises. Singapore is the leading country.

An investment fund, one of the largest in Vietnam with total assets of several billions of dollars, is from BVI. It now holds the stake of a number of large Vietnamese companies such as FPT (information technology group) and REE (refrigeration engineering).