According to the agency, the result was based on reports submitted by cities and provinces on FDI disbursement.

This year’s FDI disbursements had been forecast to reach US$11 billion before the estimate was revised down to US$9 billion after reaching USD11.5 billion last year.

The agency remains confident Vietnam will realize its target of actualizing US$9 billion this year. Experts said the new FDI goal was to focus on disbursements rather than commitments. But the target this year is difficult to achieve because some investors of newly-licensed projects want to extend their projects due to the global recession.

Vietnam attracted over US$10.45 billion in fresh foreign direct investment (FDI) approval in the first eight months of this year, including newly-registered funds and extra capital from operational projects, a sharp fall of almost 81.6% from the same period last year, according to the agency.

Operational foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) have increased capital in Vietnam by an amount comparable to fresh investments.

As many as 504 foreign-invested projects worth some USD 5.62 billion are estimated to have been licensed in the first eight months, down 89.2% year-on-year. Meanwhile, a total of 149 operational foreign-invested projects added US$4.82 billion to their investment capital in January-August, according to the agency. The added sum is nearly 4% higher than the figure from January-August 2008.

Of note is Ba Ria-Vung Tau Province’s Saigon Atlantis Hotel project in which Winvest LLC of the U.S. has increased its capital from US$300 million to USD 4 billion. The company has started work on the project to open the 8,000 room five-star hotel in 2011.

Meanwhile, Unilever Vietnam International Company Ltd. recently pledged an additional investment of USD 11.2 million to expand production at its factory in the Tay Bac-Cu Chi industrial zone in HCMC’s Cu Chi District. The new capital brings the company’s total investment pledge to over USD 86.47 million.

Experts said many FIEs were operating at a profit and had decided to raise capital to fund their expansion schemes. Investors also showed their confidence in capital recovery and the development of the country’s economy.

This year, the U.S. is Vietnam’s largest foreign investor with registered capital of over USD 3.95 billion, followed by Taiwan with USD 1.35 billion and British Virgin Islands with USD 1.247 billion.

The agency said early this year that new FDI commitments might drop to USD 20 billion this year, less than a third of last year’s record USD 71.7 billion.While admitting to a sharp fall in foreign direct investment this year, the head of the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment is still confident Vietnam will realize its target of luring US$20 billion this year.

“I think FDI pledges for the whole year will reach USD 20 billion because the list of potential projects in the wings is very long,” said Phan Huu Thang, director of the Foreign Investment Agency.

Some 187 FDI projects capitalized at a combined USD 85.4 billion are awaiting approval and “if only one-seventh of the proposed projects get the nod, the USD 20 billion FDI target set earlier this year would come true,” said Thang.