HANOI, April 1 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam has attracted nearly 8.6 billion U.S. dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the first quarter this year, down 20.9 percent year-on-year, according to the Foreign Investment Agency on Wednesday.
During this period, the country licensed 758 new FDI projects with a total registered capital of 5.5 billion U.S. dollars, up 44.8 percent on-year in capital, and saw 236 operational FDI projects increasing their capital by nearly 1.1 billion U.S. dollars, down 18 percent.
Among the 5.5 billion U.S. dollars of fresh FDI, 72.3 percent were poured into the electricity, gas and air-conditioner production and distribution sector, and 21.4 percent into the processing and manufacturing sector, according to the agency.
In the three-month period, foreign investors spent nearly 2 billion U.S. dollars buying shares of or contributing capital to Vietnamese firms, down 65.6 percent on-year.
In the first quarter, Singapore was Vietnam's largest source of new FDI with over 4.2 billion U.S. dollars, followed by China with nearly 456 million U.S. dollars and South Korea with over 284 million U.S. dollars, said the agency.
