In the reviewed period, local authorities licensed 67 new projects with a registered capital of more than US$1.5 billion, said the report that was based on statistics from seven provinces and cities nationwide through February 20, including Hanoi, HCM City, Binh Duong and Danang.

These figures represent a 65 percent and 69 percent decrease respectively over the same period last year.

Despite an annual drop of 80 percent in the number of projects that received additional capital, their total capital was increased by 41 percent from US$2.694 billion (last year) to US$3.815 billion (this year).

The MPI said the current global economic crisis has had a dramatic impact on FDI attraction in the reviewed provinces and cities in early 2009. For example, Hanoi granted licences to only 30 FDI projects with a total registered investment of roughly US$40 million, which is equivalent to seven percent of the figure for the same period last year. The central coastal city of Danang licensed only one project, which is capitalized at US$2.3 million.

The Foreign Investment Agency under the MPI recently sent a dispatch to the centrally run provinces and cities, asking them to clearly point out the difficulties faced by their FDI projects.

FDI inflows reach US$5.3 billion in two months