Hanoi (VNA) – After 30 years of reform and opening, Vietnam has become one of themost successful countries in the region in foreign direct investment (FDI)attraction thanks to the building and completion of the legal system in thefield.

In December 1987, theLaw on Foreign Investment in Vietnam was first promulgated. Through threerevisions, in 2005, the law and the Law on Domestic Investment were replaced bythe Law on Investment.

The revision andissuance of the Law on Investment in 2014 created a breakthrough in Vietnam’smindset on FDI attraction, with a new regulation allowing businesses andinvestors to do business in areas that are not banned by the law.

The completion of thelegal framework proved that the investment attraction policies of Vietnam havebeen flexible to suit the specific development periods of the country.

In 1991, a huge waveof foreign investment came to Vietnam. In only seven years, Vietnam lured 2,230FDI projects with a combined registered capital of over 3.11 billion USD, 9.5times higher than that in 1991.

According to theForeign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment, after30 years of calling for FDI, the 63 provinces and cities across the countryhave so far hosted 26,438 FDI projects from 129 countries and territories with atotal investment of 333.38 billion USD, of which 183.62 billion USD or 55percent of total valid capital have been disbursed.

Minister of Planningand Investment Nguyen Chi Dung said that the FDI sector has played anincreasingly important role in the economy.

Currently, 58 percentof the FDI is focused on the processing and manufacturing sector, making up 50percent of the country’s industrial production, and contributing to formingsome key industries of the economy such as oil and gas, electronics andtelecommunications.

Along with injectingcapital to the economy, FDI firms have also transferred management skills totheir Vietnamese peers and helped renovate domestic firms’ technology.

Particularly, the FDIsector also creates impact on some areas of the economy through its advancedtechnology and international standards in business management as well asworkforce skill improvement and job creation.

So far, FDIenterprises have created jobs for over 3.6 million direct and 5-6 millionindirect labourers.

In localities with thelargest number of FDI projects such as Hanoi, Bac Ninh, Thai Nguyen, Vinh Phuc,Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City, Binh Duong and Dong Nai, contributions of the FDIsector is much higher, helping transform the economic structure of thelocalities and create favourable conditions for domestic firms to develop theirbusiness.

During his recentvisit to Vietnam, Kuniharu Nakamura, Co-Chair of the Japan-Vietnam EconomicCommittee of the Japan Federation of Economic Organisations (Keidanren), saidthat Vietnam is an attractive destination for Japanese investors thanks to thecountry’s large population and its location as a gateway to the ASEAN, alongwith stable socio-political conditions. The number of Japanese firms wishing toinvest in Vietnam has increased, he added.

However, in order topromote advantages and minimise problems from the FDI, Minister Dung held thatit is time for Vietnam to complete the institutions and enhance competitivenessto select and lure higher quality projects to suit the country’s socio-economicdevelopment strategy as well as changes in science and technology amidst thefourth industrial revolution and the international capital movement trend.

Besides, it is necessaryto define areas, sectors and partners with priority in FDI attraction, headded.-VNA