According to the Foreign Investment Agency (Ministry of Planning and Investment), newly registered investment capital in October continued to decrease but improved against the previous month with 1,570 projects granted investment registration certificates (up 14.2% over the same period).

The disbursed capital of foreign-invested projects is estimated at US$17.45 billion, up 15.2% over the same period of 2021.

Mr. Do Nhat Hoang, Director of the Foreign Investment Agency, quoted two reasons for the decrease in newly registered capital.

Firstly, policies to control the COVID-19 pandemic have made it difficult for foreign investors to move to Vietnam to explore investment opportunities as well as carry out investment project registration procedures in the last months of 2021, thereby affecting the number of newly granted investment projects in the first months of 2022.

Secondly, the global market is facing many fluctuations due to the influence of the geo-political conflict in Europe, high inflation pressure, and supply chain disruption, thus negatively affecting the FDI flows abroad of major economies, especially investment partners of Vietnam.

An important highlight of FDI inflows in the past 10 months is the very positive increase in capital, affirming the strong confidence of foreign investors in Vietnam's business and investment environment. The growth rate in the number of projects with capital adjustment continued to increase, reaching a higher level than in the first nine months of the year.

In the first 10 months of 2022, the number of projects with capital adjustment increased by 14.2%. The average scale of capital adjustment reached more than US$9.9 million.

The Foreign Investment Agency also said that foreign investors have invested in 18 out of a total of the country’s 21 sectors. The processing and manufacturing industry continued to lead with a total investment capital of more than US$12.9 billion accounting for 57.5% of total registered investment capital, followed by real estate business, and the power generation, distribution, and professional science and technology activities.

Foreign investors invested in 54 provinces and cities across the country in the first 10 months of 2022. Ho Chi Minh City led the way with a total registered investment capital of more than US$3.42 billion, accounting for 15.2% of total registered investment capital and increased by 25.3% over the same period in 2021. Binh Duong and Quang Ninh came second and third respectively.

As of October 20, 2022, the whole country has 35,895 valid projects with a total registered capital of over US$435.2 billion. The total disbursed capital of foreign investment projects is estimated at more than US$269 billion, equaling 61.9% of the total valid registered investment capital.