According to the data just announced by the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, as of March 20, 2023, foreign direct investment continues declining.

Specifically, as of March 20, the total value of newly registered and adjusted capital, capital contribution to buy shares, and purchase of foreign investors’ capital contributions reached nearly US$5.45 billion, equal to 61.2 percent over the same period last year. Only Bac Giang Province attracted large-scale investment projects in the first quarter of 2023.

For instance, in the first quarter of 2023, 522 new projects were granted investment registration certificates, with a total registered capital of more than US$3 billion, an increase of 62.1 percent in the number of projects and a decrease of 5.9 percent of capital over the same period last year.

In addition, 228 projects were registered to adjust investment capital with the total additional capital reaching more than $1.2 billion, an increase of 2.6 percent in the number of projects and a decrease of 70.3 percent in the amount of capital compared to the same period last year.

Also in the first three months of the year, there were 440 times of capital contributions and share purchases from foreign investors, with the total value of capital contribution reaching nearly $797.9 million, up 10 percent in number and 3.7 percent in capital over the same period.

It is worth mentioning that the realized investment capital of foreign investment projects also decreased over the same period by only $4.3 billion, down 2.2 percent.

The Foreign Investment Agency said that Vietnam’s foreign investment attraction in the first quarter of the year, the proportion of new investment capital in total registered capital increased accounting for more than 55.5 percent compared to 36 percent in the same period in 2022. Meanwhile the proportion of adjusted investment capital decreased accounting for 22.2 percent compared to 45.6 percent in the same period.

The proportion of capital contribution and share purchases by foreign investors increased slightly from 18.3 percent in the three first months of 2022 to 22.3 percent in the three first months of 2023.

Provinces and cities such as Bac Giang, Dong Nai, Bac Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hai Phong that have many advantages in attracting foreign investment including good infrastructure, stable human resources, efforts to reform administrative procedures in investment promotion saw an increase in new projects.

By sector, in the first quarter of 2023, foreign investors invested in 17 sectors out of 21 national economic sectors.

Amongst them, the processing and manufacturing industry took the lead with a total investment of nearly $4 billion, accounting for 73 percent of the total registered investment capital and down 25 percent over the same period. Real estate business ranked second with a total investment of nearly $766 million, accounting for nearly 14.1 percent of total registered investment capital and down 71.6 percent over the same period.

Wholesale and retail industries, transportation and warehousing attracted more investment capital compared to the same period last year, ranked third and fourth with a total registered capital of nearly $276 million up 2 times over the same period last year and nearly $151 million up 37 percent respectively.

Singapore remained the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam among the 67 countries and territories pouring money into Vietnam in the first three months of 2023 with nearly US$1.69 billion, accounting for nearly 31 percent of total investment capital in Vietnam, down 26.3 percent over the same period in 2022.

China ranked second with nearly $552 million, accounting for 10.1 percent of total investment capital, down 38.3 percent over the same period. Taiwan (China) ranked third with a total registered investment capital of more than $477 million accounting for nearly 8.8 percent of total investment capital, up 47.5 percent over the same period following by Korea, Hong Kong (China), and the Netherlands.

However, in terms of the number of projects, Korea lead both in the number of new projects accounting for 15.5 percent, in the number of capital adjustment accounting for 26.9 percent and in capital contribution and share purchase accounting for 28.4 percent.

SGGP News