At a regular government session last month, the MPI proposed that Vietnam open up its core service sectors such as health care, education, post office, telecommunications, as well as its maritime and aviation industries.

According to the ministry, this would help to improve the competitiveness of Vietnam’s investment climate during the current global economic downturn and the fall in the number of FDI sources.

The MPI said that, over the past three years, the disbursement of FDI reached US$23.6 billion, raising total social investment from 16.2 percent in 2006 to 24.8 percent in 2007. During 2008, the proportion was much higher, as the total amount of disbursed capital surged by 44 percent, compared to the previous year.

However, poor infrastructure, particularly power and water supply systems, road networks, and seaports, is still a worrying issue for potential investors.

The MPI intends to formulate a plan to develop the nation’s infrastructure by 2020, in order to attract even more investment in the overall infrastructure.

It pledged to encourage further investment in this field and vowed to give priority to projects involved in water supply and drainage systems, the environment, highways, railways and electricity generation.

A further session is scheduled to take place on Feb. 11, which will be attended by the MPI, other relevant ministries, corporations and banks, who will discuss transport projects that take the form of Building-Operate-Transfer (BOT) and Build-Transfer (BT) and incorporate them into a list of future FDI-funded projects.