Four foreign companies, invested by Japan, China and the Republic of Korea, have been licensed to establish factories in central Thanh Hoa province with a total investment capital of US$11.8 million. 

Of the total, Chinese International Shanghai-MD will have the largest investment of US$4.3 million in building a chrome ore processing factory, while Japanese Nomura Trading will pour US$3 million into a garment and textile factory expected to generate jobs for 2,000 workers. Most of the wholly foreign-invested factories' products will be exported. 

Thanh Hoa has so far attracted US$700 million of foreign-direct investment (FDI) from 14 FDI enterprises and contributed 12 percent to the province's budget, becoming one of the country's leading FDI-attracting provinces and cities.