HANOI, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's total registered foreign direct investment (FDI) as of May 20, including new pledges, additional investment funds to existing projects and stake acquisition, fell 7.3 percent to a combined 10.86 billion U.S. dollars year on year, the General Statistics Office (GSO) said on Monday.
Meanwhile, the country received an estimated 7.65 billion dollars in actual inflows of the FDI in the first five months of the year, down 0.8 percent from a year ago, data showed.
Vietnam licensed 5.26 billion dollars in 962 new projects in the January-May period, up 27.8 percent from a year ago, said the statistics authorities.
Nearly 2.28 billion dollars went to 485 existing projects over the period, down 59.4 percent from a year ago, which indicated a slower declining trend as the additional investment funds slumped 70.3 percent in the first quarter of the year.
Foreigners also invested 3.32 billion dollars in the January-May period, marking a year-on-year increase of 67.2 percent, through acquiring stakes in local companies, the data showed.
Singapore was the top source of direct investment pledges in the period with over 1.7 billion dollars, with China in the second place.
Of the FDI pledges, which indicate the size of future FDI disbursements, 79.3 percent or 5.98 billion dollars would go to manufacturing and processing, while 7.5 percent or over 570 million dollars are to be invested in real estate development.
Foreign direct investment inflows have been a key driver of Vietnam's economic growth. Companies with foreign investments accounted for over 74 percent of the country's total exports last year, the GSO noted.
Foreign direct investment disbursements in the Southeast Asian country rose 13.5 percent to 22.4 billion dollars in 2022 from a year earlier, while investment pledges was down 11 percent to 27.72 billion dollars, according to the GSO.
