There was a greater number of foreign-invested projects in the first sixmonths of 2015 as compared to last year, but with smaller scaleoperation.

According to the Foreign InvestmentDepartment, the number of foreign direct investment (FDI) projectsduring the period increased 15.4 percent and 28.3 percent annually interms of new businesses and ones registering additional capital,respectively.

Accordingly, 757 new FDI projects werelicensed with a combined registered capital of 3.83 billion USD while281 existing projects increased their registered capital, adding 1.65billion USD.

The total capital of 5.49 billion USDreflected an annual funding drop of 19.6 percent, attributable to thesmall scale of 2015 projects.

The processing andmanufacturing sector reeled in the most overseas capital worth 4.18billion USD distributed among 338 new and 190 existing projects,followed by realty and commerce.

The Republic of Koreahas been the top foreign investor in Vietnam with 1.52 billion USDpoured into the country within the period. The British Virgin Islands,Turkey and Hong Kong (China) were close behind; each channelled morethan 600 million USD into their local projects.

Among42 FDI destinations nationwide, southern Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Naiprovince and northern Hai Phong city dominated, receiving 1.12 billionUSD, 1.03 billion USD and 433.7 million USD respectively.

The mid-year disbursement of foreign funds reached 6.3 billion USD, up 9.6 percent year on year.

Six-month FDI export value reached 54.88 billion USD, a 15.3-percentannual rise and occupying 71 percent of Vietnam’s overall exportturnover.-VNA