Vietnam increases investments abroad

Most of the investment went to Laos, with 23 projects worth US$162 million in total, and Madagasca, where US$117 million has been invested in oil exploration work. Altogether, the projects have an average registered investment of US$6 million.

Vietnamese enterprises mainly focused their capital on agriculture (US$157 million or 40 percent of the total registered capital), and industry (US$147 million or 38 percent of the total).

Since 1988, Vietnam has invested US$1.39 billion into 248 projects in 35 countries and territories around the world.

Laos ranks first with 86 projects worth US$584 million, making up 42 percent of all Vietnamese investment abroad. Laos is followed by Cambodia with 27 projects worth US$88.4 million and Russia with 12 projects worth US$48 million.

Some promising projects have been licensed to expand their scale of operations, said Phan Huu Thang, Head of the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.