The total spend by foreign investors to acquire shares of domestic companies has nearly quadrupled since early this year compared to the same period last year, showed a Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) report.

A view of Hanoi’s changing skyline. Foreign direct investment (FDI) companies have pledged US$345.5 million in fresh capital in the real estate sector in the year to date 

FIA, an arm of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, reported foreign firms’ capital pledges for new and operational projects and stake acquisition deals with local companies in the year to February 20 had surged 21.5% year-on-year to US$3.4 billion. 

Foreign investors had registered a total of more than US$2 billion for 313 new projects in the period, up 6.5% over the year-ago period and an additional US$760 million for operational projects, sliding 15.5% from the same period last year. 

They spent US$619 million buying into local companies, a near fourfold increase.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) companies had got involved in 18 sectors. They had pledged US$2.5 billion in the manufacturing and processing sector, accounting for 73.4% of the total, US$345.5 million (10.1%) in the real estate sector, and US$222.6 million (6.5%) in the wholesale and retail sector.

Vietnam has attracted investors from 61 countries and territories this year. Singapore has emerged as the biggest foreign investor with US$881.6 million committed, 25.8% of the total FDI pledges, followed by China with US$721.7 million (21.1%) and South Korea with more than US$637 million (18.7%).

FIA said FDI disbursements had reached US$1.55 billion in the year to February 20, up 3.3% over the same period last year.

FDI businesses had also posted high export growth, with more than US$19.7 billion worth of products including crude oil shipped abroad, up 16.7% year-on-year and accounting for 72% of the country’s total outbound sales. 

If crude oil was excluded, the figure would be less than US$19.3 billion, increasing 16.2% compared to a year ago and making up 70.5% of the nation’s total.

Imports of FDI companies have surged 18% year-on-year to over US$16.27 billion this year, representing 59.4% of the country’s total.

The FDI sector has brought a trade surplus of US$3.43 billion, including crude oil.

SGT