S. Korea Sunk to #2 Investor
Vietnam, which is considered “Post China,” attracted the largest ever foreign investments this year. South Korea had ranked first in terms of investments in Vietnam for three years until last year but it was displaced by Japan in 2017.
According to Vietnam News Agency on December 26, Vietnam attracted US$35.88 billion (38.67 trillion won) in foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2017, up 44.4 percent from a year ago, the biggest amount ever posted.
According to the data of investments by country from Vietnam’s Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), South Korea ranked second with the investment of US$84.9 billion (9.15 trillion won) in Vietnam, accounting for 23.7 percent of the total FDI. Japan took first place with US$9.11 billion (9.82 trillion won), while Singapore came in third with US$5.3 billion (5.71 trillion won).
Out of South Korea’s FDI, Samsung Display took up the biggest share with an additional US$2.5 billion (2.69 trillion won) investment to establish its plant in Bac Ninh Province in northern Vietnam. The number of South Korean new investment cases reached 700.
Japan has aggressively joined in the Vietnamese power generation market as it pushed ahead with the project to set up US$2.8 billion (3.02 trillion won) worth of thermoelectric power plant in Thanh Hoa Province in central Vietnam.
By industry, manufacturing and processing had the largest share of 44.2 percent in the total FDI with US$15.87 billion (17.1 trillion won), followed by power production and supply with US$8.37 billion (9.02 trillion won) and real estate with US$3.05 billion (3.28 trillion won).
The Vietnamese government expects to achieve 6.7 percent of its goal for economic growth this year thanks to the attraction of foreign investments and expansion of exports. International financial institutions also predict that Vietnam will post some 6 percent of economic growth next year with the upswing in exports and FDIs and the growth of the domestic market.