Vietnam attracted foreign investment of 18.8 billion U.S. dollars in the first seven months of this year, seeing a year-on-year decline of 6.9 percent, its General Statistics Office said on Wednesday.
Specifically, Vietnam licensed 1,620 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with total registered capital of 9.5 billion U.S. dollars, and saw 619 operational FDI projects raise their capital by 4.7 billion U.S. dollars, according to the office.
Between January and July, foreign investors also spent 4.6 billion U.S. dollars buying shares or contributing capital to Vietnamese firms, down 45.6 percent on-year.
Among the 10.1 billion U.S. dollars FDI disbursed, 71.1 percent were poured into the processing and manufacturing sector, 15 percent into the real estate sector, and 7.1 percent into the electricity, gas, hot water, steam and air-conditioner production and distribution sector.
Among 65 countries and regions which had investment projects licensed in Vietnam in the first seven months of this year, Singapore was Vietnam's largest source of foreign investment, followed by China and South Korea, said the office.