Vietnam's foreign direct investment plunges 39 pct in Q1

HANOI, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam's total registered foreign direct investment (FDI) as of March 20, including new pledges, additional investment funds to existing projects and equity acquisition, slumped 38.8 percent to a combined 5.45 billion U.S. dollars year on year, the General Statistics Office said on Wednesday.

Vietnam received 4.32 billion U.S. dollars in actual inflows of FDI in the first quarter this year, down 2.2 percent from the same period a year ago, the data showed.

Singapore remained the top source of new FDI pledges into the country in the period with 1.35 billion U.S. dollars.

FDI pledges, which indicate the size of future FDI disbursements, reached 3.02 billion U.S. dollars, down 5.9 percent against a year earlier, the statistics office said in a statement.

Of the pledges, 77.6 percent would go to manufacturing and processing, while 12 percent would be invested in real estate development, it added.

Foreign direct investment has been a key driver of Vietnam's economic growth. Companies with investments from foreign firms accounted for about 74.4 percent of the country's total exports in 2022, according to government data.

Foreign direct investment disbursements in the Southeast Asian country rose 13.5 percent to 22.4 billion U.S. dollars in 2022 from a year earlier, while investment pledges were down 11 percent to 27.72 billion U.S. dollars, said the Ministry of Planning and Investment in a statement posted on its website.

Vietnam's economic growth quickened to 8.02 percent in 2022, the fastest since 2011. Vietnam is targeting GDP growth of 6.5 percent and inflation at 4.5 percent for this year.