Vietnam invests US$3.97 million abroad in January

The latest updates from the Foreign Investment Agency revealed that Vietnam invested US$3.97 million abroad in January, more than three times higher than the same month last year.

Cambodian telecom firm Metfone, a subsidiary of Vietnam's mobile carrier Viettel Group. (Photo www.phnompenhpost.com)
Cambodian telecom firm Metfone, a subsidiary of Vietnam's mobile carrier Viettel Group. (Photo www.phnompenhpost.com)

Seven new projects were granted investment licences, with total registered capital of US$3.83 million and one raised its capital by nearly US$140,000.

Vietnam’s overseas investment in January mainly poured into retail and wholesale (accounting for 71.8 percent of the total registered capital), construction (3.4 percent), manufacturing and processing (3.7 percent), and telecommunications (3.4 percent).

Four countries received investment from Vietnam in January. Among them, the US was the leading destination with total investment of more than US$3.53 million, followed by Japan with an investment worth US$182,400, Cambodia with US$150,000 and Republic of Korea with US$100,000.

In 2019, Vietnam invested a total of more than US$508 million in 32 countries and territories, of which US$403 million was poured into 164 new projects and 29 projects increased their capitals by a total of nearly US$105 million.

The retail and wholesale industry was the leading sector for Vietnamese overseas investment with US$121.6 million in 2019.

Other attractive sectors were agro-forestry-fishery and science and technology.

Australia was the top destination for Vietnam’s overseas investment last year, followed by the US and Cambodia.
Since 1989, Vietnam had so far invested more than US$22 billion abroad, mainly in agro-forestry-fishery, energy and telecommunications sectors.