The August figure brought the total number of newly-licensed projects in the past eight months to 772, worth US$46.3 billion.

It’s worth noting that the total registered investment of newly-licensed projects over the past eight months was five times higher than that of the same period last year. Each newly-licensed project has an average investment capital of about US$60 million.

Since the beginning of this year, 210 projects have increased their investment capital by US$833.6 million, accounting for 81.7 percent and 55.5 percent in terms of the number of projects and additional investment, respectively compared to the previous year’s corresponding period. Newly-invested and additional investment has reached US$47.15 billion, or 4.7 times higher than the same period last year.

The Foreign Investment Agency has attributed this to a great effort made by ministries, agencies and local authorities in boosting investment promotion and assisting investors operating in Vietnam. Total disbursed investment capital in the past eight months was estimated at US$8 billion, up 42.9 percent over the same period last year.

According to the agency, foreign businesses recorded a total revenue of US$30.4 billion in the reviewed period, a year-on-year increase of 33.1 percent, and contributed approximately US$1.4 billion to the State budget, up 33.5 percent against last year.

To narrow the gap between registered and disbursed investments, the MPI will focus on promoting the implementation of foreign-invested projects, particularly large-scale projects licensed in 2006 and 2007, simplifying administrative procedures, boosting the land acquisition process, as well as intensifying inspections of the implementation of projects.