Vietnam attracts over 57 billion USD in nine months

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam attracted 57.12 billion USD in FDI over the past nine months, a five-fold increase on the same period last year, the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) has said.

According to the foreign investment watchdog, foreign investors were very
keen on investing in industry and construction as they poured a staggering
32.3 billion USD into 484 projects in those fields during the first nine
months of 2008.

The FIA estimated that investment in projects in the fields of industry
and construction accounted for 57.48 percent and 54.68 percent of the total
FDI and the overall number of projects, respectively.

The service sector attracted overseas investment of 23.7 billion USD for 361
projects while the agriculture, forestry and fisheries sectors drew in just
1.12 billion USD.

The FIA reported that Malaysia has climbed into first place on the list of
40 countries and territories who have invested in Vietnam in the past
nine months.

The Southeast Asian country has registered 14.8 billion USD for 37 projects,
accounting for 26.45 percent and 4.1 percent, respectively, of the
registered FDI and the number of investment projects.

The second-largest foreign investor was Taiwan , with 8.6 billion USD and
116 projects, followed by Japan , Brunei and Canada .

In the past nine months, 8.1 billion USD in FDI was disbursed, an increase
of 37.3 percent over the same period last year, according to the
FIA.-Enditem