2018 started with major FDI inflows

Billions of US dollars have been invested in Vietnam in the first two months of the year

A week ago, Japanese newswire Nikkei reported that the Japanese government and more than 20 large Japanese firms — including Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Panasonic, and Tokyo Metro — are planning to join a gigantic project worth over $37 billion to build a smart city project in northern Hanoi.

The 310-hectarea project, with property developer BRG being the Vietnamese partner, is expected to be completed in 2023. It is also expected that in October 2018, construction of about 7,000 buildings and commercial works will begin. This may be completed in late 2019.

Early this month, private firm Hoa Phat Dung Quat Steel JSC, part of leading steel maker Hoa Phat Group, teamed up with Italy’s Danieli, one of the world’s largest suppliers of metallurgical equipment, on a giant stainless steel production project. The project will have a designed capacity of 600,000 tonnes per annum, which could be increased to one million tonnes per annum.

Located at the Hoa Phat Dung Quat iron and steel production complex in Dung Quat Economic Zone in the central province of Quang Ngai, the project will be completed by 2020 and will seek to help the country reduce its reliance on imported stainless steel products. Stainless steel importation came to 560,000 tonnes in 2017, up 10 per cent against the previous year.

In a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on February 8, Cho Hyun Joon, chairman of leading South Korean textile and chemical firm Hyosung, said that the group commits to strengthening co-operation with Vietnam, not only in processing spandex and yarn for automotive tyres, but also in chemicals and heavy industries.

The group is showing a keen interest in Vietnam’s power projects, particularly the supply of various kinds of transformers that are in dire need in the Vietnamese market.

Last year, Hyosung poured a total of $1.3 billion into a polypropylene manufacturing plant and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) underground storage facility in Cai Mep Industrial Zone in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

In 2007, Hyosung invested $1.5 billion in a plant at Nhon Trach 5 Industrial Zone to produce textiles and core industrial raw materials.

Early this year, Japanese industrial giant Mitsubishi Motors unveiled a plan to build its second automotive manufacturing facility in Vietnam, valued at $250 million in total investment capital. The plant is slated to be completed in 2020 with an annual production capacity ranging from 30,000 to 50,000 car units, serving both domestic and export markets.

According to a recent Dong Nai Department of Planning and Investment report, the southern province solicited $62.2 million in foreign direct investment (FDI) capital in the first month of the year, a 50 per cent jump on-year. The sum came from four newly-committed projects valued at a total of $22.7 million in combined investment value, and three existing projects which sought $39.5 million in combined supplemental capital.

This year, Dong Nai aims to attract $1 billion in FDI capital, focusing on priority fields such as high-tech, supporting industries, and environmentally-friendly projects.

Representatives from a slew of foreign-invested enterprises based in the southern province of Binh Duong also revealed intentions to continue investment expansion this year.

Ricardo Vasques, Southeast Asia director of major US brewer AB Inbev, said in a recent meeting with Binh Duong leaders that the company will increase investment this year to boost production at its factory based in My Phuoc 2 Industrial Park (IP), and will launch a new beer brand, Hoegaarden.

AB Inbev currently runs two breweries based in My Phuoc 2 and VSIP 2 IPs, which produce the Budweiser beer brand serving the domestic and the export market.