Hanoi (VNA) – Hanoi has been the country’s top attractor of foreigndirect investment (FDI) this year, luring more than than 4.05 billion USD inFDI projects as of March 20, 10 times higher than the same period last year.

In addition, the capital city also permittedforeign investors to spend 47.27 million USD acquiring shares in Vietnamesefirms in the three months.

The Ministry of Planning and Investment’s Foreign Trade Agency said FDI inflowto the city accounted for 38.4 percent of the nation’s total FDI in the firstquarter of 2019.

Hanoi outpaced the southern largest economichub of Ho Chi Minh City and southern Binh Duong province, who came second andthird in FDI attraction with 1.57 billion USD and 625.6 million USD,respectively.

Director of the Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment Nguyen Manh Quyensaid at a recent teleconference that the city licensed 117 new projects withregistered capital of 254.3 million USD, and allowed 25 projects to increasecapital to the tune of 40.9 million USD.

The processing and manufacturing sector remained the most alluring for foreigninvestors, followed by real estate and science and technology, he said.

Noteworthy projects in the period included Hong Kong’s Beerco Limited’sspending 3.85 billion USD on a stake in Vietnam Beverage Co Ltd, the Republicof Korea’s Lotte Mall increasing its capital by 300 million USD and Thailand’s10 million-USD Indochina Energy Development.

Quyen attributed the strong growth in FDIattraction to the city’s efforts to improve the Provincial CompetitivenessIndex (PCI), as well as remove bottlenecks for investors.

Besides, the city has stepped up information technology use to handle administrativeprocedures in business and investment registration, tax, insurance and landlease, among others, he said.

FDI commitments in Vietnam in thefirst quarter of the year reached a three-year record of 10.8 billion USD, up86.2 per cent year-on-year.

Up to 785 new projects were granted licences with total investment capital of3.82 billion USD in the first three months of the year, while 279 existingprojects were injected with an additional 1.3 billion USD.

Hong Kong was the leading source of foreigninvestment with 4.4 billion USD among 74 countries and territoriesinvesting in Vietnam, making up nearly 40.7 per cent of the country’s totalFDI. Singapore ranked second with 1.46 billion USD (13.5 per cent), and theRepublic of Korea came next with 1.3 billion USD (12.2 per cent). China andJapan took fourth and fifth with total registered capital of 1 billion USD and700 million USD, respectively.-VNA