Hanoi (VNA) – Japan overcame 86 countries andterritories to become the largest foreign investor in Vietnam in the first sixmonths of this year, with 6.47 billion USD, or 31.8 percent of the totalregistered capital.

Japanese investors poured 4.138 billion USD into a projecton building a smart city in Hanoi’s Dong Anh district.

Foreign investors invested a total of over 20 billion USD in1,366 new projects and 507 existing ones as well as in contributing capital andbuying shares in domestic company in the reviewed period.

With 5.06 billion USD, the Republic of Korea was Vietnam’ssecond biggest investor, followed by Singapore with 2.39 billion USD.

During January-June, foreign investors poured their capitalinto 55 provinces and cities, in which Hanoi ranked first with 5.87 billionUSD. The capital city was followed by Ho Chi Minh City (3.68 billion USD), andBa Ria-Vung Tau province (1.93 billion USD).

Manufacturing-processing industry continued to attract themost foreign direct investment (FDI) in Vietnam in the first half of 2018, with7.91 billion USD, accounting for 38.9 percent of the total registered capital.

It was followed by real estate, with 5.54 billion USD, andthe wholesale and retail sector with 1.5 billion USD, making up 27.3 percentand 7.4 percent of the total, respectively.

To date, Vietnam has attracted nearly 26,000 projects with aregistered capital of 326 billion USD. Disbursement is estimated at 180 billionUSD.

Foreign investment accounts for 25 percent of the country’stotal investments and contributes 20 percent of GDP. Last year, the sectorcontributed nearly 8 billion USD to the State budget, 14.4 percent of totalrevenue.

At present, 58 percent of foreign investments focus onprocessing and manufacturing, generating half of industrial productionvalue.-VNA