Investment in Vietnam up

Investment in Vietnam up

HANOI (Reuter): Vietnam has licensed 122 foreign investment projects with total capital of US$2.4 billion so far this year, officials said yesterday, indicating a rising rate of investment pledges.

Authorities gave licenses to 35 joint-venture projects worth $555 million in April, an official of the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment (SCCI) said.

The SCCI, the government's foreign investment approval agency, approved 366 projects with capital of $3.8 billion for the whole of 1994.

Projects licensed this year include a $347 million cement factory to be built by Japan's Nihon Cement and Mitsubishi Materials Corporation, a $243 million tourist development at China Beach near Danang by U.S. firm BBI Investment, and a $118 million glass plant by Japan's Nippon Sheet Glass company.

Vietnam has licensed projects with capital totaling about $13 billion since it opened its economy to foreign investment in 1988.