In December alone, the country licensed 112 FDI projects with a combined registered capital of over 1.17 billion USD.

The newly registered capital was mainly poured into the industrial and construction sectors, with 572 projects capitalized at over 32.6 billion USD, accounting for nearly 49 percent of the total number of projects and 54 percent of the total capital.

The service sector ranked second with 554 projects with a combined registered capital of 27.4 billion USD, accounting for 47.3 percent and 45.4 percent, respectively. The remaining was injected into the agro-forestry-fishery sector.

Most FDI projects licensed in 2008 were wholly foreign-invested, making up 75.3 percent of the total projects and 51.7 percent of the total capital. The projects’ average size reached 51.47 million USD, up sharply from previous years.

This year, 311 existing projects registered to increase investment with additional capital of 3.74 billion USD, equivalent to the annual registered capital five years ago.

In total, Vietnam attracted over 64 billion USD in both newly registered and additional FDI in 2008, doubling the figure from 2007. The volume of disbursed capital reached 11.5 billion USD, up 43 percent against last year.

Malaysia topped the list of 50 countries and territories registering to invest in Vietnam this year with 55 projects capitalized at 14.9 billion USD. It was followed by Taiwan , Japan , Singapore and Brunei .

Despite the Vietnamese economy’s difficulties in the year’s first months, FDI enterprises still saw improving business results with total yearly revenues of 50.55 billion USD, a 24.4 percent increase against last year. The figure included 24.46 billion USD in exports, accounting for 40 percent of the country’s total export turnover.

However, the sector saw the largest import turnover of nearly 28.5 billion USD, leading to its trade deficit of 4 billion USD or 25 percent of the country’s figure.

Over the past year, the sector generated jobs for more than 200,000 labourers, raising the total number of people working in FDI projects in the country to 1.47 million.

According to the MPI, in the context of the global economic crisis, this year’s impressive figures in FDI attraction have proved the international business community’s continued confidence in Vietnam ’s business environment and the government’s inflation control measures.

The ministry, however, forecast that with the unprecedented global economic and financial crisis in the world history, Vietnam ’s FDI attraction in the years to come will be very difficult and the volume of disbursed FDI capital may sharply decrease.

Therefore, solving difficulties for FDI enterprises, both newly-licensed and operational projects, are defined as the focus of state management on foreign investment in 2009.