13-14 billion USD in FDI expected in 2013

Do Nhat Hoang, head of the Foreign Investment Agency, further said at a press briefing in Hanoi on January 4 that the ministry will focus on improving the quality and effectiveness of FDI capital and how it is managed by the State.

FDI will be divided based on the demand of each sector and area as well as partners, he added.

Removing barriers for investors involved in the service industry, which Vietnam lacks, and raising those technical barriers in line with international commitments to limit inappropriate projects is another measure to increase FDI in 2013, according to Hoang.

As many as 1,100 newly licenced FDI projects and 435 additional capital projects were reported by the MPI between January 1 and December 15, 2012.

FDI capital exceeded 13 billion USD in 2012. Japan was the largest investor with 5.13 billion USD, accounting for 39.5 percent of all FDI in Vietnam.

Up to 9.1 billion USD of FDI was registered in the processing and manufacturing sector - equivalent to 70 percent of the total in 2011.

Hoang noted that additional capital from existing projects increased by 58.5 percent compared to 2011, demonstrating existing foreign investors’ trust in Vietnam’s business environment, he added.

Seventy percent of FDI projects were in production, complementing the country’s course of industrialisation and modernisation.

Last year, VIetnam invested 1.3 billion USD to projects in other countries. This year’s target is between 1-1.5 billion USD