Bac Ninh leads in 4M foreign investment

Northern province attracts one-quarter of total FDI in first four months.

Northern Bac Ninh province led the country in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first four months of this year, with total registered capital of $2.7 billion, accounting for 25.51 per cent of the total, figures from the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) at the Ministry of Planning and Investment reveal.

Following was southern Binh Duong province with total registered capital of $1.53 billion, accounting for 14.48 per cent of the total. The Mekong Delta’s Kien Giang province was third, with capital of $1.28 billion, accounting for 8.77 per cent of the total.

As at April 20, Vietnam had attracted 734 new projects this year with total registered capital of $4.88 billion, equivalent to 96 per cent of the figure in the same period last year.

There were also 345 projects increasing their investment capital to the tune of $4.36 billion, up 241.8 per cent year-on-year, while capital contributions and share purchase reached $1.35 billion, up 106.8 per cent.

Total capital in new projects and those increasing their capital, together with share contributions and purchases, stood at $10.95 billion, up 40.5 per cent over the same period of 2016. As at April 20, FDI projects had disbursed $4.8 billion, up 3.2 per cent year-on-year.

Exports by FDI enterprises (including crude oil) reached $44.05 billion, up 16.1 per cent year-on-year and accounting for 71.82 per cent of exports. Excluding crude oil, exports were $43.12 billion, up 15.8 per cent and accounting for 70.29 per cent of export turnover.

Foreign investors invested in 18 industries, of which the manufacturing and processing sector attracted the most attention, with $7.36 billion and accounting for 69.53 per cent of total registered capital.

South Korea ranked first in investment source, with $4.05 billion, accounting for 38.25 per cent of the total, followed by Japan with $1.85 billion, accounting for 17.54 per cent.

Bac Ninh should strive to become Asia’s capital of electronics manufacturing and a symbol of Vietnam’s rise in the field, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said at the province’s 185th anniversary celebrations on February 12.

He emphasized that it should make great efforts to not only be among the provinces with the highest GDP but also present its strengths in electronics in particular and the creative economy in general.

After 20 years of re-establishment, from an agricultural province Bac Ninh is now a modern industrial province with the country’s highest economic growth.

Its gross regional domestic product (GRDP) ranks sixth in the country and its industrial production value second, while its budget contributions of VND17.8 trillion ($783.2 million) are the tenth-highest in the country.

by Quynh Nguyen / VIR