Total inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI) into Vietnam amounted to 38.02 billion USD this year to December 20, a 10-year high, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Illustrative photo (Photo: VNA) 

The amount, representing a 7.2 percent increase on a yearly basis, included newly registered capital, additional capital to existing projects, and share purchase by foreign investors. 

The disbursement of FDI capital also reached a record of 20.38 billion USD.

Specifically, a total of 3,883 new projects were licensed during the year, up 27.5 percent year on year, bringing in 16.75 billion USD of new capital, equivalent to 93.2 percent of the same period last year. The average capital per project fell from 5.9 million USD in 2018 to 4.3 million USD this year.

Meanwhile, 1,381 projects raised their capital, up 18.1 percent from 2018. They added a total 5.8 billion USD worth of capital, equal to 76.4 percent of the same period last year.

A surge of 56.4 percent was seen in the capital spent on capital contribution and share purchase by foreign investors, raising the amount to 15.47 billion USD. According to the FIA, 45.8 percent of this flow on capital was directed into processing and manufacturing, while 17.8 percent went into real estate.

The FDI sector earned 181.35 billion USD from exports, including crude oil, a year-on-year rise of 4.2 percent. Excluding crude oil, the sector’s export revenue stood at 179.33 billion USD, up 4.4 percent year on year, and accounting for 68.1 percent of the country’s total export earnings.

The FDI sector spent nearly 145.5 billion USD on imports, up 2.5 percent form 2018 and making up 57.4 percent of the country’s total spending on imports.

As a result, the sector posted an export surplus of nearly 35.86 billion USD, if crude oil is included, and 33.8 billion USD if not. It compensated for the deficit of 25.9 billion USD of the domestic sector.