FDI inflows reach 22.46 billion USD in 10 months

The total newly-registered capital, adjusted capital, and capital contribution and share purchase stood at 22.46 billion USD in the January-October period, down 5.4% year-on-year.

Specifically, 1,570 projects were granted investment registration certificates during the period, with total registered capital of 9.93 billion USD, down 23.7 percent from last year.

One bright spot was disbursed capital, which topped 17.45 billion USD in the first ten months of the year, 15.2 percent higher than the same period last year. It was expected to hit 22 billion USD by the year-end.

Adjusted capital, as a single item itself, reached over 8.74 billion USD, up 23.3 percent year-on-year. Roughly 880 projects registered for capital adjustment during the ten-month period.

There were 2,997 capital contributions and share purchases by late October, equivalent to 3.97 billion USD. The figure was 4.5 percent higher than that in 2021.

FIA Director Do Nhat Hoang underlined two factors behind the falling registered capital, which are stringent COVID-19 preventive measures and global uncertainties.

He said strict COVID-19 preventive measures had made it more difficult for foreign investors to travel to Vietnam to seek new investment opportunities. Such hindrance held back the number of newly-registered projects in early 2022.

Global uncertainties, including geopolitical conflicts, inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions, compounded the situation by scaling down the capital flows from big economies, especially Vietnam's partners.

On the bright side, many large-scale projects had their capital adjusted up significantly in ten months. For instance, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Vietnam was given two capital boosts, of 920 million USD and 267 million USD.

Samsung HCMC CE followed suit with 841 million USD. The projects to manufacture electronics and multimedia devices in Bac Ninh, Nghe An and Hai Phong provinces were financed with additional capital of 306 million USD, 260 million USD and 127 million USD, respectively.

The rise in additional capital indicates that foreign investors have great confidence in Vietnam's economic growth and business environment.

The FIA census also showed that foreign investors invested in 18 out of 21 sectors of the economy during the period. Of which, processing and manufacturing took the lead in terms of foreign investment, with 12.9 billion USD.

Realty estate came next with a total investment of 3.9 billion USD, followed by electricity production and distribution with 928 million USD and scientific and technological activities with 835 million USD.

It is also worth noting that wholesale and retail, processing and manufacturing, and scientific and technological activities were the sectors with the largest number of newly-registered projects, accounting for 29.9 percent, 24.8 percent and 16.7 percent of the total number of newly-register projects in the country.

By partners, 103 countries and territories poured money into Vietnam over the year. Singapore was on top with 5.3 billion USD, accounting for 23.8 percent of the total foreign investment into the country.

Japan came second with 4.2 billion USD and the Republic of Korea (RoK) came third with 3.9 billion USD. Other names further down the list included China, Hong Kong (China) and Denmark.

Despite its third position regarding investment capital, the RoK topped the list of investors when it comes to the number of newly-registered and capital-adjusted projects in the ten-month period.

The strong foreign direct investment (FDI) inflow from the Republic of Korea (RoK) has been giving a significant push to Vietnam in the battle to move up the global value chain ladder and promote sustainable development.

Vietnam will soon set up environmental, social, and governance indicators to classify foreign direct investment and measure the performance of foreign-invested projects, laying a foundation to make decisions on the mobilisation of the capital inflows.

The northeastern province of Quang Ninh has been attracting significant foreign direct investment with its efforts to improve the investment climate.

Although Vietnam is well-placed both geographically and geopolitically to take advantage of South Korean investment waves, administrative procedures and supporting industries require further improvements in order to fully capitalise on them.

The northeastern province of Quang Ninh has strengthened to attract new-generation foreign direct investment inflows to implement its greener economic development strategy, helping it become a top manufacturing and processing industry hub for Vietnam.