Foreign investment reaches $31.56b in Vietnam

Foreign investment reaches $31.56b in Vietnam

HANOI (AFP): Vietnam's foreign investment approvals have
reached US$31.56 billion since the country's financial opening to
the outside world a decade ago, the official Vietnam News Agency
reported yesterday.

The agency quoted Nguyen Nhac, deputy minister of Planning and
Investment, as saying that some $2.77 billion in new investment
have been approved in the first eight months of this year,
bringing the total foreign direct investment in the country to
more than $31.56 billion.

Yet only $13.6 billion have actually been realized, Nhac
added.

A total of 212 new projected were licensed in the first eight
months of 1997 which was up 14 percent over the same period last
year. But the dollar value of the projects dropped 18 percent
compared to the same period a year ago, Nhac said.

Earlier this week Vietnam's Ministry of Planning and
Investment completed a plan aimed at attracting $43 billion in
new foreign direct investment by 2000, of which $28 billion will
be for industrial sectors.