Against the backdrop of ever-changing global economic patterns, Vietnam, as a representative of emerging markets, is attracting worldwide attention with its unique advantages. The latest data for 2024 once again confirms that Vietnam maintains strong growth momentum in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI), not only achieving significant increases in quantity but more importantly making breakthroughs in quality.  

Scale of Foreign Investment Growth

According to the latest data from the Foreign Investment Agency of the Ministry of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, the country’s foreign investment attractiveness showed remarkable growth in the first seven months of 2024. The total agreed foreign capital reached $18 billion, an increase of over 10% year-on-year. This figure not only reflects foreign investors’ continued confidence in the Vietnamese market but also highlights Vietnam’s important position in the regional economy. More encouragingly, the actual implemented capital exceeded $12.5 billion, an increase of 8.4% compared to the same period last year. This figure set a new record for the same period in recent years, marking a significant improvement in Vietnam’s ability to attract and implement foreign investment. Although the growth rate of actual implemented capital is slightly lower than that of agreed capital, it remains at a healthy level, indicating that foreign investors are actively turning investment plans into concrete actions.

Industry Distribution

In terms of industry distribution, the processing and manufacturing sector remains the main destination for foreign investment. Over the past seven months, the sector attracted a total investment of over $12.65 billion, accounting for 70.3% of the total agreed capital, an increase of 15.7% year-on-year. The processing and manufacturing sector not only leads in investment amount but also dominates in the number of newly approved projects and capital increase projects, accounting for 35.1% and 65.8% respectively. This trend reflects Vietnam’s rising status in the global manufacturing value chain and its attractiveness as an important production base.

Notably, the wholesale and retail sector performed outstandingly in terms of capital contribution and share purchases, accounting for 42.1%. This phenomenon reflects the enormous potential of Vietnam’s domestic consumer market and foreign investors’ confidence in Vietnam’s continued economic growth. As Vietnam’s middle class continues to grow and its consumption capacity increases, it can be anticipated that the retail sector will continue to be a focus of foreign investment.

Regional Distribution Characteristics

In terms of regional distribution, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, as Vietnam’s two major economic centers, continue to maintain leading positions in attracting foreign investment. Ho Chi Minh City leads by a large margin in the number of newly approved projects and capital contribution and share purchases, accounting for 39.1% and nearly 70.1% of the national total, respectively. These figures fully demonstrate Ho Chi Minh City’s position as the economic center of southern Vietnam and its attractiveness to foreign investment due to its well-developed infrastructure and high-quality business environment.

Hanoi stands out in the number of capital increase projects, accounting for 14% of the national total. This indicates that existing foreign-invested enterprises have a high level of satisfaction with Hanoi’s investment environment and are willing to further expand their investment scale. At the same time, it also reflects that Hanoi’s efforts in industrial upgrading and innovation are being recognized by foreign-invested enterprises.

In addition to these two central cities, places like Hai Phong, Bac Ninh, and Vinh Phuc have also achieved significant results in attracting high-quality foreign investment. This multi-point blooming situation is conducive to promoting balanced regional economic development in Vietnam and provides more diversified investment options for foreign capital.

Investment Quality Level

The Foreign Investment Agency’s assessment shows that the quality of foreign direct investment projects is significantly improving. Among newly approved and capital increase projects, the proportion of investment in high value-added fields is continuously increasing, especially in semiconductors, new energy (such as batteries, photovoltaic cells, silicon rod production), parts production, and electronic products. This trend is highly consistent with the Vietnamese government’s policy orientation of actively promoting industrial upgrading and technological innovation.

The increase in high-quality projects not only brings capital and employment but more importantly promotes technology transfer and industrial chain upgrading. Taking the semiconductor industry as an example, large-scale investments in Vietnam by global leading companies such as Amkor Technology not only enhance Vietnam’s position in the global semiconductor industry chain but also create opportunities for the development of local supporting enterprises.

Source Countries of Investment

Data shows that as of the first seven months of 2024, 91 countries and regions have invested in Vietnam, reflecting Vietnam’s broad attractiveness as an investment destination. Among the source countries of investment, Singapore ranks first with an investment amount of nearly $6.52 billion, accounting for 36.2% of the total investment and showing a significant increase of 79.1% compared to the same period in 2023. The massive entry of Singaporean enterprises not only brings capital but also advanced management experience and an international perspective.

Closely following is Hong Kong, China, with an investment amount exceeding $2.19 billion, accounting for 12.2%, more than doubling year-on-year. Traditional major investing countries such as Japan, mainland China, and South Korea also maintained high investment enthusiasm. This diversified investment source structure helps reduce Vietnam’s dependence on a single market and enhances the economy’s risk resistance capacity.

Cumulative Investment Overview

As of July 20, 2024, there were 40,777 foreign investment projects still in effect nationwide in Vietnam, with a total registered capital exceeding $487 billion. Of this, the actual implemented capital reached $309.7 billion, equivalent to 63.6% of the total registered capital of projects in effect. This data reflects Vietnam’s long-term effectiveness in attracting foreign investment, while also indicating that there is still a large amount of registered capital waiting to be implemented, providing potential for future economic growth.

Conclusion

The data for 2024 shows that Vietnam continues to maintain strong momentum in attracting foreign investment. Both the growth in total volume and the improvement in quality demonstrate Vietnam’s huge potential as an emerging market. Local governments are creating more favorable conditions for foreign investment through continuous improvement of the business environment, optimization of industrial structure, strengthening of infrastructure construction, and other measures.

As Vietnam’s economy further develops and opens up, it can be expected that Vietnam will play an increasingly important role in the global investment landscape. For global investors, gaining an in-depth understanding of the Vietnamese market and seizing investment opportunities will become key to winning in the future. To stay updated on the latest information about Vietnam, please continue to follow this site. For more details, you can click to consult Jaycy Sun.