S'pore overtakes Taiwan in Vietnam

S'pore overtakes Taiwan in Vietnam

HANOI (AFP): Singapore has become the number one foreign investor in terms of approved investments in Vietnam, overtaking Taiwan, a source at Singapore's embassy here said yesterday.

The embassy source said Singapore has projects worth about US$4.7 billion in approved investment, with close to 150 projects licensed.

Second-ranking Taiwan has 263 projects worth nearly $4 billion, according to a report in the Thanh Nien newspaper yesterday.

Singapore was catapulted into the top spot after a massive $2.1 billion satellite city project outside Hanoi received a license at the end of last year.

South Thang Long, a 392.5-hectare (940-acre) development north of Hanoi, is being developed by Indonesia's Ciputra Group through Singaporean subsidiary Development Planning Investment Pte. Ltd.

The $2.11 billion project will eventually house 200,000 people and include offices and possibly a golf course,

The embassy source said much of the Singapore-registered investment reflects deals routed through the city-state by overseas investors.

"We encourage foreign companies to use Singapore to do business through affiliates so they can take advantage of our financial services," the source said.

South Korea is ranked third with more than $2.5 billion in projects and Japan ranks fourth with $2.4 billion.

Vietnam has licensed more than $28 billion of foreign projects so far but only around a quarter of this amount has been disbursed.

A number of high-profile investments have been withdrawn or put on hold over the past year because of uncertainties about the country's market development.