FDI inflows reach 22.46 billion USD in 10 months

Illustrative image (Source: VNA)

Foreign capital inflows fell whereas disbursed capital rose in the first 10 months of 2022, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

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% 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% 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% 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% 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%, 24.8% and 16.7% 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% 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./.