Viet Nam attracted more than 15 billion USD in committed foreign investments so far this year, and the number is likely to hit 16 billion USD for the year as a whole, a senior official from the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) said at the investment forum on November 26.
These figures, compared to 10.2 billion USD in 2006, and 6.4 billion USD in 2005, meant that foreign investment was growing strongly, said Phan Huu Thang, general director of the MPI’s Foreign Investment Agency.
“That is the most practical measurement of our efforts to improve the business environment in Viet Nam,” Thang said. Viet Nam was ranked number six in the world for investment desirability, after China, India, US, Russia and Brazil, according to UN Conference on Trade and Development 2007.
Thang was speaking at an investment seminar entitled, “Viet Nam: the Rising Star – Prospects for Investment and Business,” organised by Viet Nam’s MPI and the Malaysia-based Asian Strategy and Leadership Institute (ASLI). It aims to promote investment by Malaysian businesses in Ha Noi and 31 of Viet Nam’s northern provinces.
Nguyen Bich Dat, Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment, said that in this economy which is being restructured from a very low starting point Asian businesses can find competitive advantages that are complementary to their development.
Foreign investors can now engage in more forms for investment in Viet Nam, including setting up joint ventures, purchasing shares of domestic shareholding companies, mergers and acquisitions and indirect investments.
For conditional sectors such as finance, banking, insurance, securities and telecom, Viet Nam has committed to a market-opening roadmap that is transparent to foreign investors, Dat said.
Viet Nam’s economy is expected to grow at 8.5 percent in 2007 and maintain the high growth of 9 percent through to 2009. Investments are still increasing at 18 percent a year, accounting for 41 percent of GDP.
The State budget allocated 55 percent of its investment for infrastructure and 20 percent for education, Dat said, both areas whose improvement remains major challenges facing Viet Nam.
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