Foreign investment into Vietnam up 86.2 pct in Q1

HANOI, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has so far this year attracted 10.8 billion U.S. dollars worth of foreign investment, up 86.2 percent on-year, according to its Ministry of Planning and Investment on Wednesday.

Specifically, the country licensed 785 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects totaling more than 3.8 billion U.S. dollars, up 80.1 percent in capital, and saw 279 operational projects increasing their capital by nearly 1.3 billion U.S. dollars, down 27.5 percent in additional capital.

Between January and March, disbursed capital of FDI projects reached over 4.1 billion U.S. dollars, up 6.2 percent on-year.

Also in the three-month period, foreign investors spent nearly 5.7 billion U.S. dollars buying shares of or contributing capital to Vietnamese firms, three times more than the same period last year.

Up to 77.8 percent of the total registered capital in the period were in the manufacturing and processing sectors, and 7.2 percent in real estate sector, said the ministry.