Vietnam attracted foreign investment of 19.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first eight months of this year, seeing a year-on-year decrease of 13.7 percent, according to its General Statistics Office said on Monday.
Specifically, Vietnam licensed 1,797 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with total registered capital of 9.7 billion U.S. dollars, and saw 718 operational FDI projects raising their capital by 4.9 billion U.S. dollars, according to the office.
Between January and August, foreign investors also spent 4.9 billion U.S. dollars buying shares or contributing capital to Vietnamese firms, down 48.2 percent on-year.
Among the 11.4 billion U.S. dollars FDI disbursed, 71.1 percent were poured into the processing and manufacturing sector, 14.9 percent into the real estate sector, and 7 percent into the electricity, gas, hot water, steam and air-conditioner production and distribution sector.
Among 70 countries and regions which had investment projects licensed in Vietnam in the first eight months of this year, Singapore was Vietnam's largest source of foreign investment with 4.6 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 47.2 percent of total investment, followed by South Korea with over 10.7 percent and China with 10.5 percent, respectively, said the office.