Vietnam receives over US$21 billion in foreign investment over nine months

Of the total 1,947 new projects were the recipient of investment registration certificates, a fall of 29.4% from the same period last year, whilst total registered capital stood at US$10.36 billion, a decline of 5.6% on year.

Most notably, the majority of projects with newly granted and additional investment capital through capital contribution and share purchases endured a fall when compared to the same period last year.

Furthermore, disbursed capital is also in a similar situation, with US$13.76 billion in foreign investment capital being disbursed throughout the nine-month period, equal to 96.8% over the same period from 2019.

"The second wave of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in the world and in Vietnam has had a significant impact on the inflow of foreign investment into the nation in recent times," according to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Despite this, the agency believes that foreign investors are still maintaining strong production and business activities, whilst remaining confident with regard to the country’s investment environment. Due to these factors, there are still plenty of foreign investors who are keen to make investments in the nation.

The Foreign Investment Agency states that foreign financiers have made investments across 18 fields. Of these sectors, the processing and manufacturing industry ranked first, with total investment capital of approximately US$ 9.9 billion, making up 46.6% of the total registered investment capital.

Following this, the electricity production and distribution sector ranked in second with total investment capital of over US$4.3 billion, representing 20.6% of overall registered investment capital. The real estate business, in addition to the wholesaling and retailing sectors, had total registered capital of roughly US$3.2 billion and US$1.3 billion, respectively, with the remaining amount going to various other fields.

During the past nine months, there have been a total of 111 countries and territories investing in the nation. Leading the way is Singapore with a total investment capital of US$6.77 billion, accounting for 32% of total local investment capital, while the Republic of Korea came in second with US$3.17 billion, and China raked third at US$1.87 billion, trailed by Japan, Thailand, and Taiwan (China).