Foreign investment in HCM City up 43% in two months. Photo is Ho Chi Minh City–Trung Luong Expressway. (Source: VNA)

The southern economic hub granted investment certificates to 101 projects with registered capital of 97.7 million USD, up 22.8% from a year earlier.

Singapore ranked first with 23 new projects worth 76.6 million USD, accounting for 78.4% of the new capital. It was followed by the Republic of Korea (RoK) with nine projects worth 4.8 million USD, equivalent to 4.9%; and Taiwan (China) with four projects worth 4.2 million USD, 4.3%.

Meanwhile, 47.6 million USD was channeled into 29 existing projects. The RoK added the most, 16.4 million USD, making up 34.4% of the additional capital.

During the period, foreign investors spent 187 million USD on contributing capital to and purchasing shares of local businesses, rising 15.9% year on year. Singapore and the RoK topped the list in this regard, respectively accounting for 64.3% and 11.7%, data show.

As of February 20, total foreign investment in HCM City approximated 80.31 billion USD. In particular, there were 11,447 valid foreign investment projects with total capital of nearly 56.33 billion USD. About 23.98 billion USD was registered to contribute capital to and purchase shares of domestic firms, according to Statistics Office.