As of August 20, 2018, FDI projects disbursed $11.25 billion, up 9.2 per cent over the same period last year, according to a report just released by the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI).
Despite the significant contribution of FDI to the growth of Vietnam's economy, there are still many opposing views from experts concerning about the over reliance of Vietnam on foreign enterprises.
Vietnam would experience strong GDP growth this year and next, as it continues to attract FDI inflows and expand their manufacturing base, according to the head of Asia research at Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Ltd.
Japan topped 96 countries and territories having investment projects in Vietnam, followed by South Korea and Singapore, according to report by Foreign Investment Agency
The real estate sector continued receiving robust interest from foreign investors by ranking first in the contribution to FDI registration with over $4.9 billion, in which the Smart city project in Hanoi accounted for the majority, according to Savills.
As the biggest foreign direct investment project in Vietnam with $11 billion of register capital, Formosa Ha Tinh has created stable jobs for 12,000 people.
Vu Tien Loc affirmed that over the past years, the reform of Vietnam business environment and the implementation of free trade agreements have created breakthroughs but the spillover of foreign direct investment (FDI) is still very low.
Several local investment promotion agencies still lack a lot of information on investment appraisals and the current assessments of provinces are mainly based on personal experience rather than following a standard.
Growing foreign direct investment and a move up the value chain mean Vietnam’s industrial real estate sector has an optimistic future, according to Savills Vietnam.
Despite the growth in FDI inflow in recent year, there is a growing realization that Vietnam requires breakthrough reforms to compete for higher quality streams of FDI.