According to the statistics published by the Foreign Investment Agency, foreign direct investment (FDI) projects disbursed an estimated $7.3 billion in the first five months of the year, up 7.8 per cent on-year.

The country had granted investment certificates to 1,363 new projects with the total newly registered capital of $6.46 billion, up 38.7 per cent on-year.

There were 505 instances of added capital registration with the total additionally registered capital of $2.63 billion, up 5.5 per cent compared to the figure from the same period in 2018.

Regarding capital contribution and share purchase, the country saw 3,160 such deals by foreign investors with the total value of capital contributions reaching $7.65 billion, 2.8 times as much as in the same period in 2018.

In the first five months of 2019, 19 fields received investment from foreign investors, with the processing and manufacturing sector taking the lead with $12 billion, accounting for 72 per cent of the total registered investment capital.

Real estate business ranked second with $1.38 billion, accounting for 8.2 per cent. Wholesale and retail ranked third with the total registered investment capital of $864 million, capturing 5.2 per cent.

88 countries and territories have investment projects in Vietnam. Hong Kong ranked first with the total investment capital of $5.08 billion, making up 30.4 per cent of the total investment capital, while South Korea ranked second with $2.62 billion, accounting for 15.7 per cent. Singapore ranked third with the total registered investment capital of 2.09 billion, capturing 12 of the total investment capital.

55 cities and provinces received investment from foreign investors. Hanoi attracted the most FDI with the total registered capital of more than $4.79 billion, capturing 28.6 per cent of the total. Ho Chi Minh City ranked second with more than $2.78 billion, accounting for 16.6 per cent. Binh Duong ranked third with over $1 billion, accounting for 7 per cent.

As of present, Hanoi has total of 4,850 ongoing foreign-invested projects with accumulated capital of US$41.2 billion, of which, the disbursement rate accounts for 49.7% of the total or US$20.5 billion.

Hanoi remains the top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam in the first five months of 2019, with US$4.75 billion, equivalent to 28.64% of the total nationwide, according to the municipal Planning and Investment Department.

Ho Chi Minh City came second with US$2.78 billion or 16.6% of the total investment, followed by Binh Duong with over US$1.25 billion, accounting for 7.4% of total investment.

In the five-month period, Hanoi has approved 280 new projects with total commitments of US$162 million, while 75 existing projects have been injected an additional US$295.7 million.

During this period, 380 projects have had US$4.3 billion in capital contributed by foreign investors.

As of present, Hanoi has a total of 4,850 ongoing foreign-invested projects with accumulated capital of US$41.2 billion, of which, the disbursement rate accounts for 49.7% of the total or US$20.5 billion.

Manufacturing and processing continued to attract substantial attention with investment capital contributing to 37.2% of total FDI approvals.

Both real estate and trade-services were the second most heavily invested sectors, with 31.2% of total registered capital, followed by forestry – fishery - agriculture with 0.18%.

The data shows that Japan has been the top investor in Hanoi to date with US$10.24 billion, followed by Singapore with US$6.6 billion, while the third place belongs to South Korea with US$5.52 billion.

Hanoi has seen a total of nearly 10,648 enterprises registered for new establishment in the first five months of 2019, with registered capital of a combined VND100.87 trillion (US$4.33 billion).

This resulted in an increase of 10% in the number of enterprises and 1% rise in registered capital year-on-year.

The number of enterprises temporarily ceasing operation in the period was 4,137, up 25% year-on-year. Moreover, the number of enterprises which finished the procedures for bankruptcy in the first five months of this year was 834, an increase of 46% from the same period last year.

Hanoi continues to maintain the 100%-rate of online business registration without delay in administration procedures.

This is in line with the local authority’s efforts to support businesses’ operation in Hanoi, from business registration to project implementation, while ensuring a transparent and fair business environment with no discrimination in accessing land and financial resources.

In June, Hanoi is scheduled to hold its annual investment promotion conference and push for greater business and investment environments through addressing shortcomings in master planning, issuance of investment and business licenses.

Ho Chi Minh City attracted 2.77 billion USD in foreign investment in the first five months of this year, with 46.7 percent of the capital poured into real estate.

The figure was reported by Director of the city’s Department of Planning and Investment Le Thi Huynh Mai at a conference of the municipal People’s Committee on June 4 to review socio-economic performance in the January-May period.

Mai also reported that 16,664 domestic firms were licensed in the period with total registered capital of over 265.6 trillion VND (11.33 billion USD), with 36.7 percent of the new firms operating in the real estate sector.

Total revenues from retails and services in the five-month period amounted to 463.5 trillion VND, up 12.3 percent year on year.

Budget collection totaled 165.2 trillion VND, accounting for 41.39 percent of estimates.

Chairman of the municipal People’s Committee Nguyen Thanh Phong urged local officials to accelerate the processing of investment projects’ procedures for the projects to be deployed in schedule.

The conference discussed the pace of several major projects in the city, including the upgrade of Xuyen Tam canal, the flood control project invested by Trung Nam group, and the selection of investors for waste-to-energy project.