Global recession causes foreign investment flow to trickle

Hanoi (VNA) - Vietnam began to feel the knock-on effects of the global recession as
the government announced that the total foreign direct investment (FDI) registered
during January 2009 was just 200 million USD, an 8.5-time drop year-on-year.

This figure is equal to just 18 percent of the FDI influx into the country in the
previous month, reported the Foreign Investment Department (FID) under the
Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The national governing body for the FDI also acknowledged a reduction in the scale
of investment in projects. The month's biggest FDI project stood at 20 million
USD, while the average capital was between 3 and 3.5 million USD for each project.


The disbursement of FDI registered capital was 70 percent of that recorded during
the corresponding period last year. However, the department predicted a rosier
outlook for February, as the southern coastal province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau
is expected to license a 200 million USD foreign-invested project in mid-February.


The FID said it was working hard to adopt concrete measures to resume 2008's
record FDI spree, when total FDI registration hit 64 billion USD and 11.5 billion
USD was disbursed, at an average of 60 million USD per project.-Enditem