During the first eight monthsof 2021, foreign investment registered in Vietnam, at 19.12 billion USD, continued to decrease, but the reduction was less than 2 percent fromthe same period last year, reported the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) underthe Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).
The Republic of Korea (RoK), Japan,and Singapore remained the largest investors.
The RoK continually topped the countries and territories investing in Vietnam for years, followedby Japan and Singapore.
However, since the COVID-19 pandemic appeared, Singapore hasreplaced the RoK in this top position. It registered nearly 9 billion USD ofinvestment in Vietnam in 2020, accounting for 31.5 percent of total foreigninvestment in the country. The respective figures were over 6.2 billion USD and32.5 percent during January - August this year.
Japanese enterprises channeled3.2 billion USD into Vietnam so far this year, making up 16.8 percent of thetotal and rising 94.9 percent year on year. Meanwhile, the RoK’s registeredinvestment fell 17.8 percent to over 2.4 billion USD, equivalent to 12.7percent of the total, statistics show.
It is noteworthy that aninvestment project worth more than 1 million USD from Albania was registered inAugust. Though Albania is not a major economy in Europe, that a new Europeaninvestor pays attention to Vietnam despite the COVID-19 pandemic, which istaking its toll on global investment flows, is an encouraging sign and also ademonstration of the country’s attractiveness, according to the Dau tu (VietnamInvestment Review) newspaper.
Facing a downturn in theforeign investment inflow, the FIA pointed to the complex COVID-19 situation inlarge investment partners of the country, underlining the need to tap into newmarkets.
Given this, the MPI and theMinistry of Foreign Affairs recently held a webinar on investment cooperationwith the Middle East.
MPI Deputy Minister NguyenThi Bich Ngoc said the Middle East is always viewed as a potential region forinvestment cooperation, but its investment in Vietnam remains modest and hasyet to match potential.
Though 13 of the 16 MiddleEast countries have invested in Vietnam, the number oftheir projects here stands at only 136, worth 917 million USD in total.
Opportunities are still aheadwhen Middle East countries are stepping up overseas investment, she said,suggesting studying cooperation with third partners to make major investments in Vietnamand connect the region’s big investment funds with large infrastructureprojects in the country./.