HANOI, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of nearly 19.1 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months of this year, showing a year-on-year decline of 4 percent, according to its Foreign Investment Agency on Wednesday.
Specifically, the country licensed 1,918 fresh FDI projects with total registered capital of roughly 13.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 18.1 percent in project number and up 0.2 percent in registered capital, while seeing 736 operational FDI projects increase their capital by nearly 5.6 billion U.S. dollars, down 12.8 percent against the same period last year.
Among the FDI of nearly 19.1 billion U.S. dollars in the eight-month period, 48.8 percent was poured into the local processing and manufacturing sector, and 28.8 percent in real estate trading, said the agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
The capital city of Hanoi got the biggest amount of registered capital of 5.1 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 37.8 percent of the total, followed by the southern province of Ba Ria Vung Tau with 13.1 percent, and the southern province of Binh Duong with 4.9 percent.
Japan was the biggest investor with more than 5.8 billion U.S. dollars, making up 43.4 percent of the total, tailed by South Korea with 20.9 percent, and Singapore with 7 percent.
From January to August, realized capital of FDI projects in Vietnam stood at nearly 11.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 9.2 percent on-year, the agency said.
In the period, foreign investors also spent roughly 5.3 billion U.S. dollars buying shares or contributing capital to Vietnamese firms, up 50.9 percent.
