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.