Tide of shrinking foreign investment on the turn

The expansion and casino of Laguna Lang Co Resort is likely to make a positive sign in Vietnam's FDI attraction

On May 25, Laguna Lang Co, one of Asia’s largest integrated resorts managed by international hospitality operator Banyan Tree, officially received its casino licence from the Vietnamese government. Additionally, the resort increased its total investment capital to $2 billion.

The project was officially licensed on May 25, however, the local authorities, including the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA), did not add it to the list of foreign invested projects in the first five months of this year because the list is closed on the 20^th day of every month.

According to the statistics of FIA of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI), in the first five months of this year Vietnam attracted $9.9 billion in foreign investment capital, reaching approximately 81.6 per cent of last year's figure. However, the disbursed foreign direct investment (FDI) capital was $6.75 billion, up 9.8 per cent.

Notably, as of May 20, 1,076 newly-registered projects received investment certificates with the total capital of $4.66 billion, which was 83.2 per cent of last year's figure, while 393 existing projects received added capital of $2.49 billion, equaling 52.6 per cent of last year's figure. Meanwhile, 2,341 M&A deals were signed with a total investment capital of $2.75 billion, up 53.5 per cent.

In the first five months of this year, foreign investors invested in 17 industries nationwide. The processing and manufacturing industry still kept the top position with a total of $5.18 billion, equalling 52.3 per cent of the total FDI inflows. The runners-up are the real estate sector with $1.07 billion and wholesale and retail with $1.02 billion.

Regarding cities and provinces receiving FDI, foreign investors poured capital into 53 cities and provinces across the country. Ho Chi Minh City ranked first with $2.39 billion, making up 24.2 per cent of the total FDI inflows, while Haiphong received the second largest FDI volume with $1.07 billion, equalling 10.8 per cent of the total. Hanoi ranks third with $835.3 million.

In general, as of May 20, no billion-dollar projects were licensed.