Largest Vietnam Investor
South Korea became the largest foreign investor in Vietnam this year, beating Japan.
The Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment reported on Dec. 27 that a total of foreign direct investment (FDI) worth US$20.23 billion was made by Korean companies this year in 54 provinces and cities in Vietnam. This figure is 19 percent higher than the initial FDI attraction goal.
By country, South Korea invested US$7.32 billion, ranking first place by accounting for 36.2 percent of the total FDI from 60 countries, followed by Hong Kong with US$3 billion and Singapore with US$2.79 billion.
In particular, the Vietnamese investment by Singapore includes investment by Samsung's Singapore subsidiary, so the FDI by South Korean companies is estimated to be much larger than the official statistics.
Japan, which ranked first in Vietnamese investment last year, moved to fourth place.
By field, manufacturing and processing got a US$14.49 billion investment, accounting for 71.6 percent of the total FDI, followed by US$2.54 billion for real estate and US$1.05 billion for construction.
By region, Thai Ngueyn, which attracted the world's biggest mobile phone production facility of Samsung Electronics, recorded the largest FDI attraction of US$3.35 billion.
The Southern economic capital city Ho Chi Minh, which ranked first place by attracting US$3.1 billion investment in the previous year, was pushed to the second.
Exports by foreign investment companies amounted to US$101.59 billion, which was 68 percent of the total Vietnamese exports, leading Vietnamese economic growth.