According to the Overseas Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MoPI), disbursed FDI capital in January reached about $400 million meanwhile new registered and raised FDI capital was $318 million.

In February, FDI disbursement reached $700 million, bringing the total figure during Jan-February to $1.1 billion, up 10 percent against the same period last year.

This is significant in the context that new FDI attraction and raised FDI capital decreased. In Jan-Feb, total FDI attraction and raised FDI capital reached only $1.78 billion, or 27.3 percent compared to the same period last year.

FDI disbursement is a big problem. In 2008, the country drew over $64 billion of registered FDI capital and it was over $21 billion of pledged FDI. But, FDI disbursement in 2008 and 2009 reached only $21.5 billion, equalling to 25 percent of total registered FDI capital.

Phan Huu Thang, former head of Overseas Investment Department, recommended that country should focus on disbursement and carrying out effectively signed FDI projects instead of focusing on seeking new FDI projects.

"Transferring from pledged capital into actualised capital is a big challenge. Especially in the limited current conditions on scale of economy, development of infrastructure as well as management capacity, it is hard to expect about an attractive disbursed FDI capital" said Thang.

The main concern of foreign investors is infrastructure. The amount of capital spent on building a modern and large port area will lose effect if infrastructure such as road system or electricity supply does not meet the operation capacity.
Ground clearances also worry many investors, especially in real estate sector.

Minister of planning and investment, Vo Hong Phuc, said this year the government will focus on solutions on law and policies, schemes, infrastructure improvement, manpower preparation, state management and investment promotion.

Information from localities showed that many big FDI projects will be started in forthcoming time such as Guang Lian Dung Quat steel mill project ($3 billion), Safari zoo project ($200 million) in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau, Vietnam-Singapore service and industrial urban zone project ($100 million) in the northern city of Hai Phong.

(VietnamPlus)