Foreign investment picture stays bright
08:50' 11/10/2006 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - A tourism complex on Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang, currently seeking approval from the Ministry of Planning and Investment, is among major new foreign-invested projects under development.

The planned tourism complex invested by the US's Rockingham, Canada's Automind Capital Group and France's Victoria would have a combined total capital of over $1.1 billion and would include restaurants, hotels, theatres and a marine tourism area.

In the first nine months of this year, 580 foreign-invested projects were licensed nationwide with a total registered capital of $3.8 billion, a year-on-year increase of 47.7 percent. Leading sources of foreign investment included Hong Kong, the Republic of Korea, Japan and the US.

In September alone, 154 foreign-invested projects were granted investment licenses, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Ho Chi Minh City ranked the first in attracting foreign capital, with 27.9 percent of the country's total foreign direct investment, Quang Ngai province placed second with 14.4 percent and Hanoi arrived in third place with 13.3 percent.

Ministry experts predicted that total foreign investment in Vietnam would reach more than $25 billion in the next five years, climbing to $35-40 billion in the following five years.

The director of the ministry's Foreign Investment Department, Phan Huu Thang, said that giving more power to the grassroots level for granting investment licenses would enhance foreign investment.

With stable economic growth and politics and a skilled workforce, Vietnam was emerging as an attractive destination for foreign investors, said Thang.

Thang predicted that, in the near future, the US would become the largest investor in Vietnam as Vietnam becomes a WTO member. Total US investment through third countries into the country has reached $3 billion. 

Despite optimistic assessments, Thang warned that the great challenge facing the country was that Vietnam needed to continue building more of a transparent legal framework, improving infrastructure and raising workers' professional skill.

(Source: VNA)

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