(VNA)Viet Nam will surely get more than 20 billion USD in foreign direct investment this year, a record since the country first enacted the Foreign Investment Law in 1988, said a senior investment official.
According to Head of the Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Department for Foreign Investment Phan Huu Thang, the figure is higher than an earlier forecast of 16 billion USD as several large projects were granted investment licenses in December.
The official said the investment was poured in the country’s key economic sectors like industry, construction, electronics, telecom, infrastructure and high technology.
Investors also paid much interest in services, urbanisation, and construction of industrial zones and processing of seafood and agro-forestry products.
2007 is considered as a “bumper harvest” year for high-technology sector with many large-scale projects, including a 100 million USD printing circuit plant in Ho Chi Minh City of the US Jabil Circuit Co. Ltd., two plants with a combined capital of 80 million USD in Bac Ninh province of Taiwan’s Foxconn group. The Foxconn President even expressed his ambition to turn his firm into the largest investor in Viet Nam with an investment capital of 5 billion USD.
Biggest FDI projects include 1.7 billion USD Vung Ro oil refinery in Phu Yen province invested by the British Technostar Management and the Russian Telloil, Ha Noi-based 500 million USD luxury apartment building by Keangnam of the Republic of Korea, and a 45 million USD Vespa motor plant of the Italian Piaggio and a 500 million laptop plant of the Taiwanese Intelligent Universal in northern Vinh Phuc province.
In 2007, the Republic of Korea was the most successful investor in Viet Nam, topping the list of 81 foreign investors. Since 1988, it has had 1,655 projects in Viet Nam with a combined registered capital of 11.5 billion USD, equal to 22.7 percent of the total number of projects and over 16.4 percent of the capital.
The year also saw a large change in India’s investment strategy in Viet Nam. A steel plant in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau and a steel complex in the central province of Ha Tinh , brought the South Asian country to a list of top ten largest investors in Viet Nam. Viet Nam also became the biggest recipient of Indian investment in Southeast Asia.