Vietnam Attracts $15B in Investments

Vietnam attracted $15 billion in foreign direct investment in the first 11 months of the year, as investors gained more confidence in the economically booming Southeast Asian country, an official said Tuesday.

Phan Huu Thang, director of the Foreign Investment Department at the Ministry of Planning and Investment, attributed the surge in foreign investment to the country's political stability and the government's push to improve the investment climate.

Vietnam's admission into the World Trade Organization earlier this year also contributed to the rise in foreign investment, he said.

South Korea tops the list of foreign investors in the 11 months through November, with pledged investment capital of $3.7 billion. The British Virgin Islands came next with $3.5 billion, followed by Singapore with $1.5 billion, Thang said.

"We expect foreign investment to top $16 billion this year," he said. That would top last year's previous annual record of $12.2 billion by more than 30 percent.

The government has licensed more than 8,000 foreign investment projects worth about $80 billion since 1988.