According to newly released figures from the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, January witnessed several positive signs in foreign investment influx in the first month of 2025.

The registered foreign capital includes new investment, capital adjustments, and share purchases, representing a 48.6 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2024. Notably, this is the highest growth rate recorded for January since 2021, despite the month including seven public holiday days.

Meanwhile, the month saw over 280 new investment projects (down 6.6 per cent on-year), with a total newly registered capital of nearly $1.29 billion (down 43.6 per cent). The highlight is that China is the leading partner for a number of new projects (making up 30.1 per cent) and the amount of newly registered capital (accounting for 29.54 per cent) in the first month of the year.

In parallel with the sharp increase in quantity and scale, Chinese capital flows have also increased in quality.

“For example, in the past, Chinese businesses entering Vietnam primarily operated in garments, footwear, wood products, food processing, paper mills, and household appliances,” said Nguyen Van Toan, vice chairman of the Vietnam Association of Foreign Invested Enterprises. “Even then, there were concerns about the risk of environmental pollution from Chinese-invested projects. However, in recent years, there has been a large volume of projects for high-tech industries, technology, components, and spare parts for industrial production, electronics, green energy, electric vehicles, and e-commerce.”

Many Chinese international-scale corporations have registered to invest and deploy manufacturing plants in Vietnam such as BYD, Radian, Brotex, and Quanta Computer, among others. Many Chinese supporting businesses (for example Goertek and Foxconn) supplying products to large global electronics companies like Samsung and Apple also have set up their factories in Vietnam after surveying other nations.

Nguyen Thi Hong Chuyen, deputy general director of industrial park developer Capella Land, told VIR that Chinese investors offer several strict criteria for their projects.

“They set the requirements for higher quality in many aspects such as synchronous and modern infrastructure, multimodal transport connections, energy conversion, and prime locations with large land availability,” Chuyen said. “Besides that, they are implementing the projects rapidly, especially vendors shifting to Vietnam under the plans of international corporations. Therefore, such businesses often require quick and on-time handover of premises and factories.”

At large-scale projects, the land renting price is not the decisive factor for their decisions. They also carefully negotiate items in the contracts to ensure the best quality for their projects, she added.

The room for investment capital influx from Chinese businesses opened up with several commitments already made. In late 2024, China Huadian Corporation and Energy China Group expressed intentions to expand their operation in Vietnam in clean energy and electricity distribution.

Huadian has invested a total capital of $2.8 billion in Vietnam so far, with its Duyen Hai 2 also being the first onshore wind power scheme from Huadian in a foreign country. The company seeks to increase investments in Vietnam in wind power, green hydro, power storage, and energy efficiency, expecting the Vietnamese government to issue policies for the development of green energy.

Regarding Energy China Group, which is implementing 16 projects worth $2.2 billion in Vietnam, the group expects the country to have an appropriate electricity pricing mechanism and expressed its hopes to participate in developing green and low-emissions solutions such as liquefied natural gas power, offshore wind power, and transport projects.

In addition, Vietnam last December received a delegation of leaders from 18 major Chinese enterprises led by China Pacific Construction Group and Susun Construction Group, who visited Vietnam to seek cooperation and investment opportunities.

China Pacific Construction in particular was invited to explore key projects including the Tu Lien Bridge, the Hanoi metro line, a metro line connecting Tan Son Nhat and Long Thanh international airports, and cross-border rail and road projects.