As of September 20, registeredFDI totalled 18.7 billion USD, down 15.3% year on year, according to theForeign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).
The figure includes 7.12 billionUSD poured into 1,355 new projects, respectively falling 43% and rising 11.8%.More than 8.3 billion USD was poured into 769 existing projects, up 29.9% and13.4%, respectively. Meanwhile, foreign investors spent over 3.28 billion USD onpurchasing shares in Vietnamese companies, up 1.9%.
The processing and manufacturingsector continued to take the lead with over 12.1 billion USD in FDI, accountingfor 64.6% of total registered capital. It was followed by real estate with over3.5 billion USD, or nearly 19%.
The MPI said though newlyregistered investment has yet to fully recover from the COVID-19 pandemic’simpacts and recent global uncertainties, the capital added to existing projectsand spent on share purchases have been on the rise.
In the first nine months, Vietnamrecorded investment from 97 countries and territories. Singapore was the largestsource of FDI during the period with more than 4.75 billion USD (equivalent to 25.3%of the total but still down 24.3% from a year earlier). The Republic of Korearanked second (3.8 billion USD, equivalent to 20.3%, down 2.38%) and Japanthird (1.9 billion USD, equivalent to 10.2%).
Ho Chi Minh City was thebiggest FDI destination with over 2.96 billion USD registered, making up 15.8%of the total and rising 26.2%. It was followed by southern Binh Duong province (2.7billion USD, equivalent to 14.4%, up 58%) and northern Bac Ninh province (1.78 billionUSD, equivalent to 9.5%, and increasing 2.1-fold).
As of September 20, Vietnamwas home to 35,725 valid FDI projects worth more than 431.5 billion USD./.