Hanoi raked in about 6.23 billion USD in foreign direct investment (FDI) during the first nine months of this year, continuing to lead the country in FDI attraction, according to the municipal People’s Committee.

A corner of Hanoi capital (Photo: hanoimoi.com.vn)

Of the total, 503 million USD was poured into 631 new projects, while 509 million USD was added to 148 existing ones. Foreign investors injected over 5.22 billion USD into local firms via capital contributions and share purchases.

In September, the capital licenced 65 new FDI projects worth a total of 30 million USD, including 54 wholly foreign invested and 11 associate and joint venture ones. Some 20 million USD was added to 15 existing projects while about 75 million USD was contributed by foreign investors to local enterprises.

During the nine-month period, the city granted business registration certificates to over 20,560 new businesses with total registered capital exceeding 263.7 trillion VND (11.34 billion USD), up 9 percent and 28 percent year on year, respectively. The city is now home to over 273,700 companies.

According to the Hanoi People’s Committee, the results were largely owing to the city’s drastic efforts to improve the local business climate, accelerate public administrative reforms in business-related areas, bolster e-Government development and build a team of friendly and supportive civil servants.

The city’s departments and agencies have enthusiastically explored difficulties facing investors to provide them with timely support.

To utilise the advantages provided by free trade agreements, Hanoi will prioritise investment in the fields of information technology services, biotechnology, tourism, education, health care and logistics.

The city is set to lure over 7.5 billion USD in FDI in 2019. To this end, the city will continue attracting capital through public-private partnerships and FDI, while streamlining public administrative procedures for investors, said Chairman of the Hanoi People’s Committee Nguyen Duc Chung at a recent meeting.

Last year, Hanoi attracted 7.5 billion USD worth of FDI, the highest among the country’s 63 provinces and cities, and more than twice as much as the 2017 figure.

Eighty percent of the city’s projects were wholly owned by foreign investors. The remaining were associate and joint venture businesses.

FDI capital flowed the most into property development (29.5 percent of the total), processing and manufacturing industry (20.1 percent), and telecommunication and information (11.5 percent).

Japan was Hanoi’s largest investor with total capital of 10.2 billion USD. The followers included Singapore (6 billion USD) and the Republic of Korea (5.5 billion USD).