Around half the investment has been committed in real estate. It includes a $4.3 billion urban area by Brunei’s New City Group in the central province of Phu Yen and a $4.23 billion project by Canada’s Asian Coast Development Ltd. to develop a luxury entertainment and recreational complex in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau.

Of 35 countries and territories investing in Vietnam, Taiwan is the largest with a total investment of $8.4 billion in 84 projects, Vietnam News Agency reported. It is followed by Japan, Malaysia, Brunei and Canada.

The FDI scenario this year shows that foreign investors continue to trust the Vietnamese investment environment though the country is facing challenges like inflation, director of the Foreign Investment Agency, Phan Huu Thang, said. But there are some adverse factors, he admitted.

He pointed to a recent report by the Japan External Trade Organization which found Hanoi to be the fifth most expensive city in Asia in terms of office rent.

The cost of transporting goods from Da Nang port and housing prices in Ho Chi Minh City are also high compared to other countries in the region, the report said.

Japanese investors consider Vietnam the best place for manufacturing in the next decade, Thang said, but only 29.2 percent of businesses in the services sector are profitable in Vietnam compared to 69.5 percent in the rest of Asia.

His agency would try to tap both local and foreign financial sources to upgrade roads and ports and to ensure adequate supply of power and water to industry, he said.

Officials from the Foreign Investment Agency would travel around the country to check the status of FDI projects and help local authorities speed up work on those involving more than $50 million, the agency said.

The government hopes $10 billion worth of FDI will actually be disbursed this year. Around $6 billion was the figure for the first seven months.