HANOI, March 3 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam attracted foreign investment of nearly 6.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first two months of this year, seeing a year-on-year decline of 23.6 percent, according to its Foreign Investment Agency on Tuesday.
Specifically, Vietnam licensed 500 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with total registered capital of 5 billion U.S. dollars, down 2.7 percent in the project number but up 104.7 percent in capital.
Meanwhile, the country saw 151 operational FDI projects raise their capital by 638.1 million U.S. dollars, down 25.4 percent in capital.
Between January and February, foreign investors also spent 827.3 million U.S. dollars buying shares or contributing capital to Vietnamese firms, decreasing 84 percent on-year.
Among the fresh FDI of 5 billion U.S. dollars in the two-month period, 79.9 percent were poured into the electricity, gas and air-conditioner production and distribution sector; 16 percent into the processing and manufacturing sector; and 4.1 percent into remaining sectors, according to the agency.
Among 38 countries and regions which had investment projects licensed in Vietnam in the first two months of this year, Singapore was Vietnam's largest investor with registered capital of over 4.1 billion U.S. dollars, followed by the Chinese mainland with 418.5 million U.S. dollars, and China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region with 167.1 million U.S. dollars, said the agency.
