Hanoi (VNA) – Vietnam attracted 31.8 billion USD in foreign directinvestment (FDI) in the first 11 months of 2019, up 3 percent year-on-year,according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planningand Investment.

Of thefigure, 14.68 billion USD was poured into 3,478 new projects, up 28 percentfor the number of projects but down 7 percent in terms of capital.

Up to 5.87billion USD was pledged to 1,256 existing projects, equivalent to 79.3 percentof the value from a year ago, but up 20 percent in the terms of the number ofprojects.

Duringthe period, foreign firms invested 11.24 billion USD in Vietnam through capitalcontributions and share purchases, representing a yearly rise of 47.1 percentand accounting for 35.4 percent of the total registered capital.

The 11-monthFDI disbursement reached an estimated 17.69 billion USD, surging 7.2 percentover the same period last year, the FIA said.

Notably,from January to November, the number of business delegations arriving in Vietnamto seek investment opportunities increased by 30 percent compared to lastyear’s corresponding period. Most of them came from Japan, the Republic of Korea,mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Processingand manufacturing remained the most attractive sector to foreign investorsduring the 11 month period, drawing 21.56 billion USD, making up 67.8 percentof total FDI pledges. Property trading came second at 3.31 billion USD (10.4 percentof the total), followed by wholesale and retail and science andtechnology.  

Among the117 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, Hong Kong retained its crownas the largest investor with 6.69 billion USD, making up 57 percent of thenation’s total FDI. It was followed by the Republic of Korea with 5.73 billion USD(18 percent) and Singapore with 4.47 billion USD (14 percent). The country’sother sources of FDI were mainland China and Japan.

Thecapital city of Hanoi was the largest FDI recipient during the period with 6.82billion USD, accounting for 21.5 percent of the total. HCM City ranked secondwith 5.48 billion USD (17.2 percent), followed by the southern provincesof Binh Duong and Dong Nai and the northern province of Bac Ninh.

Accordingto the FIA, the foreign-invested sector earned nearly 166.7 billion USD fromexports in the reviewed period, 4 percent higher than the same period last yearor equivalent to 69 percent of the country’s total export value.

The sectorspent 134.1 billion USD on imports, up 3 percent year-on-year, resulting ina trade surplus of nearly 32.6 billion USD.  

As ofNovember 20, the country was home to more than 30,470 valid foreign-investedprojects with total registered capital of 360.69 billion USD. Nearly 60 percentof the FDI pledges had been disbursed./.