New approvals raise total FDI to US$23b Vietnam looks set to attract an estimated US$2.61 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) this month, taking the total in the year to date to US$22.94 billion, up 4.6% year-on-year, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.   As of July 20, some 1,656 FDI projects had received investment certificates, with total registered capital reaching US$13.2 billion, up 2.2% over the year-ago period. This July witnesses a rebound of FDI capital year-on-year, while those of the January-June period were all lower than last year’s figures. During the same period, over 3,330 merger and acquisition deals were conducted by FDI investors to acquire local firms’ shares, worth nearly US$4.79 billion, rising 53.3% year-on-year. According to FIA, foreign investors had injected money into 17 sectors in the first seven months. Of these, the processing and manufacturing sector secured the top position in attracting overseas investment, worth US$9.63 billion, accounting for 41.95% of the country’s total. Meanwhile, the real estate sector ranked second, with the total investment capital hitting US$5.6 billion, making up 24.4% of the total, and the wholesale and retail sector came third, with the total registered capital reaching US$1.69 billion, accounting for 7.4%. Besides this, FDI firms simultaneously boasted robust growth in operations, particularly in terms of trade. In the January-July period, FDI firms earned US$95.13 billion from the export of various products including crude oil, up 14.6% year-on-year and accounting for nearly 71.2% of the nation's export revenue. Imports of the foreign investment sector reached US$76.46 billion, up 8.5% year-on-year and accounting for 58.5% of the nation’s total. In general, this sector achieved a trade surplus of US$18.67 billion when including crude oil and US$16.9 billion when excluding crude oil. As estimated by FIA, in the year to July 20, FDI projects had disbursed US$9.85 billion, rising 8.8% versus the year-ago period. From January to July, 96 countries and territories funded projects in Vietnam, of which Japan took the leading position with total registered capital of US$6.88 billion, accounting for around 30% of the country’s total. South Korea came second, with a total of US$2.73 billion, accounting for 11.9%. SGT