Vietnam May FDI pledges fall 80% to $322Mln

Pledges of new investment in Vietnam in May plunged 80% from April to $322 million, the Planning and Investment Ministry’s foreign investment agency said.

In May, the country licensed 51 new FDI projects worth $322 million, plunging 80% on month and allowed 11 existing foreign direct investments to increase $343 million, rising 50% on year.

May is the fifth straight month FDI attraction has dropped since the beginning of this year.

In the first five months of this year, Vietnam attracted $4.7 billion FDI, meeting 23.5% of the year plan.

Meanwhile, FDI disbursement in May is estimated at $900 million, slowing down third month in a row from $1.22 billion in April and $1.4 billion in March.

May figure extended the FDI disbursement in the first five months of the year to $4.52 billion.

FDI attraction is just slightly higher than FDI disbursement in Jan-May, a rare move seen in Vietnam FDI history.

The FDI enterprises run a trade surplus of $1.4 billion in the first five months of this year after exporting $19 billion worth of goods, up 34.2% on year and importing $17.6 billion worth of goods, up 32.5% on year.

The FDI data is preliminary, compiled by the agency on the 24th of each month. Vietnam expects FDI to be between $11 billion and $11.5 billion this year, unchanged to slightly higher than in 2010, while new pledges were expected to rise 16% to $20 billion, the government said in December.

Foreign direct investment, remittances from overseas and aid money are an important source of foreign exchange for Vietnam, helping offset its trade deficit.

Overseas remittances are expected to rise at least 6% this year to $8.45 billion, a government report said.

In Jan-May, Vietnam runs a trade deficit of $6.59 billion, data from GSO said. – Stoxplus.com

Tags: invest in Vietnam, Vietnam FDI, Vietnam FDI 2011, Vietnam investment