It’s time for small projects, they said, adding that the city government should further improve investment environment to attract small-scale projects while releasing capital worth billions of dollars from projects licensed two to three years ago.

Arika Fukuda, the owner of five restaurants in Japan, has just moved his Japanese restaurant from Ho Chi Minh City’s District 3 to the more crowded District 5.

He said Vietnam has become his top choice in time of business difficulties in Japan.

A similar restaurant in Japan may cost him US$800,000, which is three times higher than in Vietnam, and the time to resume the initial capital is also three years longer than in Vietnam.

When the Crescent Mall in HCMC’s District 7 was put out for rent late last month, the first leaseholder was Boomarang Bistro & Bar, an Australian restaurant. CEO Martin McGettigan said his company had chosen Vietnam as the next destination after Singapore given the “attractiveness” of a small market.

Those are just two among hundreds of foreign-invested projects in Ho Chi Minh City in the hospitality sector.

In 2009, Ho Chi Minh City topped the list of foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction localities with 384 new projects and 115 projects with additional capital, most of which are in the service sector.

Estimated FDI promised to the southern hub plummeted by 86 percent from 2008 to US$1.3 billion last year.

HCMC Department of Planning and Investment deputy director, Lu Thanh Phong, said most of the city’s FDI actually released in 2009 were from small projects.

He said this year the city was also looking to disburse real estate projects worth billions of dollars which were licensed two to three years ago.

The prolonged projects are causing a waste of time for the compensations and site clearance, he said.