The Foreign Investment Agency said that as of August 20, the country had licensed 672 more FDI projects with total registered capital of US$5.52 billion, and approved 244 existing projects with their additional investment of US$2.95 billion.

About US$7.28 billion of FDI had been disbursed in the reviewed period, 99.7 percent of the figure for the same period last year.

The newly-licensed projects are primarily focused in the processing, manufacturing, real estate, retail, transport and healthcare sectors.

The southern province of Binh Duong led the nation in attracting FDI, with US$1.84 billion, followed by Hai Phong (US$1.05 billion), Dong Nai (US$972.8 million), Ho Chi Minh City (US$922.9 million), Bac Giang (US$902.7 million), and Hanoi (US$413.1 million).

Japan is currently Vietnam’s largest foreign investor with newly-invested and expanded projects worth US$4.33 billion, accounting for 51.1 percent of the total investment in the Southeast Asian country.

It’s worth noting that most of the FDI projects licensed in the past eight months were small and medium scale with less than US$1 billion each.