Foreign capital inflows fell whereas disbursed capital rose in the first 10 months of 2022, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The total newly-registered capital, adjusted capital, and capital contribution and share purchase stood at USD 22.46 billion in the January-October period, down 5.4 percent year-on-year.
Specifically, 1,570 projects were granted investment registration certificates during the period, with total registered capital of USD 9.93 billion, down 23.7 percent from last year.
One bright spot was disbursed capital, which topped USD 17.45 billion in the first ten months of the year, 15.2 percent higher than the same period last year. It was expected to hit USD 22 billion by the year-end.
Adjusted capital, as a single item itself, reached over USD 8.74 billion, up 23.3 percent year-on-year. Roughly 880 projects registered for capital adjustment during the ten-month period.
There were 2,997 capital contributions and share purchases by late October, equivalent to USD 3.97 billion. The figure was 4.5 percent higher than that in 2021.
FIA Director Do Nhat Hoang underlined two factors behind the falling registered capital, which are stringent COVID-19 preventive measures and global uncertainties.
He said strict COVID-19 preventive measures had made it more difficult for foreign investors to travel to Vietnam to seek new investment opportunities. Such hindrance held back the number of newly-registered projects in early 2022.
Global uncertainties, including geopolitical conflicts, inflationary pressures and supply chain disruptions, compounded the situation by scaling down the capital flows from big economies, especially Vietnam's partners.
On the bright side, many large-scale projects had their capital adjusted up significantly in ten months. For instance, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Vietnam was given two capital boosts, of USD 920 million and USD 267 million.
Samsung HCMC CE followed suit with USD 841 million. The projects to manufacture electronics and multimedia devices in Bac Ninh, Nghe An and Hai Phong provinces were financed with additional capital of USD 306 million, USD 260 million and USD 127 million, respectively.
The rise in additional capital indicates that foreign investors have great confidence in Vietnam's economic growth and business environment.
The FIA census also showed that foreign investors invested in 18 out of 21 sectors of the economy during the period. Of which, processing and manufacturing took the lead in terms of foreign investment, with USD 12.9 billion.
Realty estate came next with a total investment of USD 3.9 billion, followed by electricity production and distribution with USD 928 million and scientific and technological activities with USD 835 million.
It is also worth noting that wholesale and retail, processing and manufacturing, and scientific and technological activities were the sectors with the largest number of newly-registered projects, accounting for 29.9 percent, 24.8 percent and 16.7 percent of the total number of newly-register projects in the country.
By partners, 103 countries and territories poured money into Vietnam over the year. Singapore was on top with USD 5.3 billion, accounting for 23.8 percent of the total foreign investment into the country.
Japan came second with USD 4.2 billion and the Republic of Korea (RoK) came third with USD 3.9 billion. Other names further down the list included China, Hong Kong (China) and Denmark.
Despite its third position regarding investment capital, the RoK topped the list of investors when it comes to the number of newly-registered and capital-adjusted projects in the ten-month period.- (VNA/VLLF)
