According to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), in the first quarter of 2008, Vietnam attracted USD 5.436 billion of FDI, including new registrations and supplementations, achieving an increase of 31 % against the same period of 2007. In March, 75 FDI projects were granted the certificates of investment with the registration capital of over USD 2.60 billion, out of the total of the registration capital of USD 5.10 billion in the fist quarter.
There were also 40 cases of increasing FDI registration capital with the total supplementations of USD 280.30 million, equal to 47 % of the cases and 52 % of the supplementation capital compared to the same period of 2007.
In the first quarter, the United States was the investor with the highest registration capital of USD 1.31 from 8 projects, in which the project of building five-star hotels and resorts in Ba Ria – Vung Tau, by Good Choice Ltd. Company, accounted for USD 1.299 billion.
Noticeably, FDI capital of the first quarter concentrated mostly on the service sector with over USD 4.60 billion, accounting for 89.90 %. A majority of the projects were in the areas of real estate and hotels, in which there were large capital projects. Beside the project of Good Choice Company Ltd., other big projects includes the project of Vietnam-Japan Human Resource Development Joint-stock Company jointly invested by three Japanese companies, with the aim to construct high office buildings for rent, produce soft-wares, and developing human resources with the total capital of USD 610.30 million; the project of Investment and Development Company Ltd. (Singapore) to build five star hotels, villas and apartments for sale and rent in Thua Thien – Hue) with the total capital of USD 289 million.
Also in the first quarter, the implementation capital achieved USD 1.68 billion, increasing by 24 % against the same period of last year. The turnover of FDI sector reached about USD 7.60 billion, increasing by 27 % compared to the first quarter of 2007; the export volume was USD 5.398 billion, 20 % higher than the same period of 2007; the import value recorded USD 6.10 billion, increasing by 39 %. The FDI sector contributed USD 355 million to the national budget, 19 % higher than the number of last year.
