The government issued the list of 163 national projects calling for foreign investment in 2006-2010 in late September 2007. These are important projects that were approved by the government in terms of investment mode.

According to this list, the total capital needed for these projects is estimated at over $61 billion, including over $53 billion for industry-construction projects, over $7.8 projects for tourism-service and the remaining for projects in the fields of agriculture-forestry-fisheries.

This ratio of capital accurately reflects the numbers of projects in each area in the list: industry-construction 109 projects, tourism-service 48, agriculture-forestry-fisheries 6.

The list proves that Vietnam is focusing on infrastructure development, with up to 47 projects belonging to the Ministry of Transportation while the Ministry of Industry and Trade has only six projects.

“Infrastructure is the burning issue at present, and thus requires a huge amount of investment. The pressure on improving infrastructure facilities has become clear and the government hopes that investors will strongly participate in this area,” said Head of the Foreign Investment Agency Phan Huu Thang.

The list includes projects that call for huge amount of money, for example the Nghi Son Oil Refinery complex in the central province of Thanh Hoa with $5 billion, Oil Refinery No. 3 in the southern province of Ba Ria-Vung Tau with $5-6 billion of capital and the Long Thanh International Airport project in the southern province of Dong Nai with necessary investment of $5 billion (for the first phase). All of them are in the fields of industry and construction.

Other big projects need capital of around $2 billion, including the Lach Huyen port complex in Hai Phong City, the Van Phong international entreport in Khanh Hoa province, the Southern Petrochemistry complex in Ba Ria-Vung Tau province, and the entertainment zone on Tam Hai Island in Quang Nam province.

There are ten projects with investment of more than $1 billion, such as belt road No.3 in HCM City with $1.55 billion of investment, Yen Vien-Ngoc Hoi railway with $1.618 billion among others.

According to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, from 1988 to September 2007, FDI flow into Vietnam reached over $72.8 billion, with 8,058 projects licenced.

Source: TBKTVN.