Ho Chi Minh City drew 198.82 million USD in foreign direct investment in the first half of this year - Illustrative image (Photo: VNA)

This growth was primarily driven by existing projects increasing their capital. Nine projects reported capital injections totaling 188.97 million USD, a threefold increase year-on-year. The Green Planet project led the way with a capital rise of 158 million USD.

However, the number of new FDI projects approved during the period declined. HEPZA reported the approval of only 10 new projects with a combined registered capital of 9.85 million USD, down 73.46% annually.

Domestic investment in the city's industrial parks and processing zones also experienced a decline. Total domestic investment reached over 1.79 trillion VND (73.17 million USD), marking an 89.42% decrease year-on-year. While there were nine new domestic projects with a registered capital of 604.9 billion VND (down 96.23% annually), 11 existing projects saw their investment capital rise by 1.187 trillion VND, representing a 33.75% increase.

Despite the slowdown in new projects, Chief of HEPZA Office Nguyen Thi Lan Huong highlighted positive developments in the city's industrial parks and export processing zones, with an export turnover estimated at 4.5 billion USD for the first half, reflecting a 7% increase year-on-year.

As of the end of June, the IPs and EPZs housed a total of 1,715 active investment projects with a combined registered capital of 13.59 billion USD, including 561 foreign-invested projects valued at over 7.2 billion USD and 1,154 domestic projects with a total investment exceeding 114.98 trillion VND (6.32 billion USD).