The Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) has revised its figures to show that foreign invested companies registered US$13.33 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the eight months leading up to September 2015.
The Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) has revised its figures to show that foreign invested companies registered US$13.33 billion of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the eight months leading up to September 2015.
Originally, the FIA had reported that FDI for the eight months January-August was US$10.23 billion, but subsequently discovered that it had overlooked a US$3 billion certificate issued to Samsung Display Co Ltd.
The certificate was issued on August 6 for a manufacturing facility in Bac Ninh Province at the Yen Phong Industrial Park, which is expected to create 20,000 jobs for local residents.
During the eight month period, the FIA issued certificates for 1,219 new investments listed at US$7.87 billion and US$5.46 billion for increased investment on projects existing as of the beginning of the year.
It is important to note these figures represent in large part investments to construct manufacturing factories that will be built at some future date and do not represent capital or cash flows during the eight-month period.
The numbers are simply the sum total of projects registered for which investment certificates have been issued, said the FIA.
The FIA said its best estimate of actual disbursements made by foreign invested companies jumped 7.6% year-on-year for the period to US$8.5 billion, which indicates construction activities are picking up.
No information was provided by the FIA as to where the actual cash disbursements were made.
In other words, the US$8.5 billion was spent by companies on materials, machinery and equipment to construct plant and the actual cash flowed to the companies in countries that provided these materials and items.
FDI is principally a measure of foreign manufacturers’ physical investment in factories located in Vietnam and to a more limited extent represents a foreign company’s ownership interest of 10% or more of any company or joint venture located in Vietnam.
Vietnam has 18 business sectors and FDI certificates have been issued to companies operating in 17 of them with the lion’s share of FDI naturally being in manufacturing with more limited amounts in real estate and the retail sector.
Out of 55 countries investing in Vietnam, the Republic of Korea (RoK) at US5.26 billion tops the list, registering 39.5% of the combined total of all countries. The UK ranked second at US$1.25 billion.
The northern province of Bac Ninh led the country in FDI attraction at US$3.33 billion, followed by Ho Chi Minh City at US$2.42 billion and southern Dong Nai province at US$1.13 billion.
(Source: VOV)
