Singapore has 1,379 valid projects in Vietnam worth a combinedamount of nearly 33 billion USD as of February this year, ranking thirdamong 101 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, according tothe Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning andInvestment.

The projects are distributed across44 of 63 provinces and cities across Vietnam, a majority of which areoperating in Ho Chi Minh City with 686 projects worth more than 9billion USD, and Hanoi with 226 projects worth 4.17 billion USD.

Singapore has so far invested in 18 of the 21 sectors in Vietnam. Aproject funded through a Singaporean investor in Vietnam costs anaverage of 24 million USD, above the average 14 million USD investmentfor general foreign projects in Vietnam.

Ofthese, the processing and manufacturing have attracted the largestinvestments from Singapore with 426 projects and a total capital of13.37 billion USD (40.5 percent of the total Singapore invested capitalin Vietnam).

The property sector has 74Singapore-invested projects worth nearly 10 billion USD (30.1 percent),followed by hotel and restaurant services with 1.88 billion USD,construction with 1.86 billion USD and art performance and entertainmentwith 1.78 billion USD.

Fully Singaporeanforeign capital projects accounted for 63 percent, or 20.75 billion USD,with the remaining functioning as joint-stock or joint-ventureprojects.

During the first two months of thisyear, Vietnam licensed 12 new Singaporean-invested projects and allowed71 million USD in capital to be added to eight ongoing projects.

The Republic of Korea has become the top foreign investor in Vietnamwith 4,240 projects worth a total of 37.84 billion USD. Japan followswith 2,556 projects worth 37.37 billion USD, according to the FIA.-VNA