In 2023, despite a challenging economy, Vietnam achieved impressive results in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). The registered FDI reached a record high of $36.6 billion, a 32.1% increase compared to 2022. This figure demonstrates that investors are highly interested in Vietnam as a stable, attractive, and promising investment destination.
In addition to the registered FDI, disbursed FDI also achieved impressive results with $23.18 billion, a 3.5% increase compared to 2022, making it the highest disbursed FDI ever.
“In the context of economic difficulties in 2023, this is a positive signal that the FDI community continues to maintain good investment and business activities” – Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung stated.
Vietnam is considered an attractive and safe investment destination, resulting in a wave of investment in Vietnam with large-scale projects in the technology and electronics industries. (Illustrative image)
Notably, in 2023, new FDI increased significantly in terms of investment capital (62.2%) as well as the number of new investment projects (56.6%), indicating that investors continue to show interest and trust in Vietnam’s investment environment and make new investment decisions.
In terms of the quality of foreign investment projects, there has also been improvement, with the majority of projects focused on the processing and manufacturing industry (accounting for 64.2%). Many of these projects are large-scale and involve high technology in the fields of electronics, semiconductor production, supporting industries, and advanced technology applications.
“Vietnam is considered an attractive and safe investment destination for technology and electronics projects,” affirmed a representative of the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
According to economic experts, the results of attracting FDI in Vietnam are due to the Government and the Prime Minister’s consistent attention and support, creating the most favorable conditions for business activities through specific measures such as proactively approaching large investors in priority sectors to invite them to invest in Vietnam. The Government also regularly organizes dialogues between the Government and ministries, localities, and foreign-invested enterprises to address difficulties and obstacles for investors to implement projects in Vietnam.
Vietnam actively supports enterprises and investors during the Covid-19 period to maintain production and business activities, including prioritizing vaccination, allowing experts to enter Vietnam, facilitating labor mobility, issuing work permits, facilitating customs procedures, and providing tax and fee deferrals and subsidies for workers. These efforts have left a good impression and have been evaluated by investors as making Vietnam an attractive and safe investment destination.
Furthermore, Vietnam inaugurated the National Innovation Center and organized the International Innovation Exhibition of Vietnam in 2023, with the collaboration of innovation centers worldwide and major technology corporations. This has created an impact for technology investors to invest in Vietnam.
In the future, Vietnam will actively attract selective foreign investment, focusing on quality, efficiency, technology, and environmental protection. It will prioritize projects with high added value, high technology content, linkage with domestic enterprises, and global production and supply chains. (Illustrative image)
Regarding the direction of attracting FDI in 2024 and the coming years, Minister of Planning and Investment Nguyen Chi Dung stated that Vietnam will actively attract selective foreign investment, focusing on quality, efficiency, technology, and environmental protection. Furthermore, Vietnam will prioritize projects with high added value, high technology content, linkage with domestic enterprises, and the ability to create multiplier effects to connect global production and supply chains.
Especially, the encouraged sectors for foreign investment in Vietnam in the future are electricity, electronics, semiconductors; renewable energy, high-efficiency agriculture; digital economy, digital transformation; innovation, research, and development; and financial centers.
In the future, the Ministry of Planning and Investment will continue to provide advice and develop breakthrough plans and solutions to attract foreign investment for sustainable and effective results, making it an important channel for mobilizing capital for the economy, driving recovery and development in the new situation. Vietnam will leverage external forces, creativity, and the synergy of strength and intelligence to proactively adapt, seize opportunities, and enhance the effectiveness of foreign investment cooperation, contributing to making Vietnam a potential, safe, and attractive investment destination for foreign investors.
According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, by January 2024, Vietnam attracted 39,377 foreign direct investment projects with a total registered capital of $471.9 billion from 144 countries and territories worldwide.
