Foreign direct investment in HCM City drops  Foreign direct investment (FDI) registered in HCM City has decreased by 65 percent year-on-year, according to the municipal Statistics Office. Electronics products manufactured at Japanese-invested Mtex Vietnam in HCM City.  As of July 15, the country's major economic hub lured only 863.6 million USD , much lower than 2.5 billion USD in the same period last year. According to the office, real estate remained the most attractive sector to foreign investors, attracting 280 million USD or 43.7 percent of the city's total FDI. Trade ranked second with 185 million USD or 28.9 percent. In the period, the Cayman Islands were the city's leading source of FDI with 231 million USD . It was followed by Japan with 96.1 million USD ; Singapore (87.2 million USD ); the Republic of Korea (51.2 million USD ); British Virgin Islands (45 million USD ) and Taiwan (30.3 million USD ). Deputy Director of the municipal Department of Planning and Investment Le Thi Huynh Mai told Sai g on Giai Phong (Liberated Saigon) newspaper that the city's FDI results did not reflect its overall picture of investment attraction because large-scale projects were often proposed by foreign investors in the second half of this year. To create favourable conditions for investors, HCM City continued to allocate more cleared land for production and upgrade infrastructure at industrial parks and export processing zones, Mai said. The city was expanding the second phase of the Sai g on Hi-Tech Park by 600ha and planned to expand Quang Trung Software Park. It also focused on speeding up administrative reforms, she said. Earlier, Mai said that HCM City considered FDI important in its development. The city would attract FDI in knowledge and technology industries, supporting industries and bio-technology to realise that city's goal to become a knowledge economy, achieve green growth, and improve development quality and competitiveness, she noted. VNA