HCM City (VNA) – Ho Chi Minh City attracted over 1.55 billion USD in foreigndirect investment in the first quarter of this year, up 20.4 percentyear-on-year, according to the municipal People’s Committee.

Specifically,254 projects worth 288.80 million USD were newly-licensed, up 23.3 percent involume and 4.3 percent in value.

The realestate sector lured the most, accounting for 52.7 percent. It was followed byscience and technology (19.4 percent); wholesale, retail, and repair ofautomobiles, motorbikes, and other motorised vehicles (14.8 percent);manufacturing and processing (8 percent); lodging and dining services (1.9percent).

During theperiod, 53 projects raised their capital with a total investment of 62 millionUSD, up 20.5 percent in volume and 15 times the value against last year.

The cityallowed 799 foreign investors to buy stakes in domestic firms with a registeredcapital of 1.2 billion USD, marking a 19.8 percent rise in volume and 19.2percent hike in value.

Meanwhile,the total registered and additional domestic capital neared 215 trillion VND(9.34 billion USD), up 9.7 percent year-on-year.

There wereover 8,600 newly-established firms with a total registered capital of more than147 trillion VND, up 2.4 percent in volume and 46 percent in value.

Over 23,100enterprises registered additional capital at a combined value of upwards of 67.8trillion VND.

Themunicipal authorities attributed the positive results to active trade and investmentpromotion activities which helped firms expand markets and improve theefficiency of exports while inviting foreign and overseas Vietnamese investorsto join in the city’s economic growth. –VNA