As much as US$5.46 billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) was injected into Vietnam as of February 20, equivalent to 84.4 percent of the figure recorded in the same time last year, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The Department of Industry and Trade of Ho Chi Minh City, on January 13, held a conference to summarize its activities in 2020, deploy the plan for 2021, and honor the typical industrial and supporting industry products in HCMC in 2020.

Many domestic enterprises participating in the Forum on Linkage and Investment Opportunities for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, held by the US Agency for International Development (USAID), in association with the Department of Industry and Trade, and the Saigon High-Tech Park (SHTP) on December 9, affirmed that joining the global supply chain of supporting industry products is not difficult. The remaining problem is weak internal resources, so they cannot supply any high value-added product.

The latest report by the Euromonitor Market Research Group on the merger and acquisition (M&A) index has rated Vietnam as the market with the most dynamic and potential M&A activity globally this year, with a score of 102, only behind the US with 108.9 points. At the same time, it forecasts that Vietnam will continue to hold second place in the top 20 countries with the highest M&A investment index in 2021.

Recently, the situation of investment attraction in the Mekong Delta has had positive changes. Many large projects with investment capital from trillions of Vietnamese dong to tens of trillions of Vietnamese dong have landed in the rice granary in the West, creating new directions, contributing to promoting economic development.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), after implementing the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement for two months, the export of agricultural products to the EU has seen positive changes with the total agricultural export value from August 1 to the end of September estimated at US$711 million. 

Foreign investment in Ho Chi Minh City has totalled US$2.37 billion this year, including new and additional capital and share purchases, down 32.9 percent year-on-year.

By May 29, the foreign capital flow still poured heavily into Vietnam. Accordingly, the total foreign investment capital, including additional capital, capital contribution, and purchase of shares, in the first five months of this year reached US$13.9 billion. 

Whether choosing a shortcut by acquiring Vietnamese enterprises with a stable market share, or choosing a longer path by registering new investments, foreign enterprises have been striving to assert their presence in the Vietnamese market. The remaining matter is that the country needs to speed up the progress of strengthening policies, infrastructure, and facilities to welcome the wave of investments sustainably.

According to the General Statistics Office of Vietnam, in the first four months of this year, there were 2,523 times of capital contribution and purchase of shares of foreign investors with a total value of nearly US$2 billion, an increase of 52.6 percent over the same period last year.