Viện Nghiên cứu Chính sách và Chiến lược

CỔNG THÔNG TIN KINH TẾ VIỆT NAM

Tin mới

FDI's contributions and future orientation (28/3)

28/03/2013 - 14 Lượt xem

The contribution of the FDI sector
Deputy Minister of Planning and Investment Dao Quang Thu said that FDI is the most dynamically growing sector with a gross domestic product (GDP) growth always higher than the country's average. In 1995, the sector reached a GDP growth of 14.98 percent, while the country's average was 9.54 percent. The rates were 11.44 percent and 6.79 percent in 2000, 13.22 percent and 8.44 percent in 2005, and 8.12 percent and 6.78 percent in 2010, respectively. The sector's contribution to the country's GDP increased from two percent in 1992 to 12.7 percent in 2000, 16.98 percent in 2006 and 18.97 percent in 2011.
In 1991-2000, the FDI sector poured into Vietnam US$29.67 billion, accounting for 24.32 percent of all investment capital in the country in this period. The numbers were US$69.47 billion and 22.75 percent in the 2001-2011 period, respectively. The FDI sector's contribution to Vietnam's economic structure in the 2000-2011 period increased 5.4 percent.
As of the end of December 2012, according to statistics of the Foreign Investment Agency of the Ministry of Planning and Investment, Vietnam attracted 14,522 FDI projects with a total registered capital of US$210.5 billion, US$ 71.9 billion of which was already invested. Investors from 100 countries and territories worldwide have invested in most of important fields in the country, such as processing and manufacturing, real estate, accommodation and catering services, construction, information and communications, entertainment, mining, wholesale and retail, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, finance, banking and insurance, health, science and technology, education, administrative management and support services.

Foreign investors in Vietnam include many world leading corporations: Total, Toyota, Canon, Samsung, Intel, and Unilever.    

FDI contributed significantly to exports. Prior to 2001, exports of the FDI sector accounted for only 45.2 percent of Vietnam's total export revenue (including crude oil). Since 2003, the sector's exports developed considerably to make a 64 percent contribution to the country's total export revenue in 2012. The sector's contribution to state budget revenue has increased. It paid US$1.8 billion and US$14.2 billion in taxes to the state budget in 1994-2000 and 2001-2010 periods, respectively. In 2012 alone, the sector paid US$3.7 billion in taxes to the state budget (except crude oil), accounting for 11.9 percent of Vietnam's total budget revenue.
The FDI sector contributed to transforming the Vietnamese economic restructure towards industrialization and modernization. About 58.4 percent of all FDI in Vietnam was found in industry and construction. It has technological level higher than the country's average. Foreign invested industrial and construction sectors grew an average of 18 percent per year, which was higher than the whole industrial and construction sector's average. The FDI sector has made a contribution of almost 45 percent to the total industrial production value in Vietnam while contributing to the formation of a number of key industries of the economy, such as telecommunications, mining, oil and gas processing, electronics, information technology (IT), steel and cement.
Besides, the FDI sector contributed to economic restructuring in Vietnam through the application of science and technology in agricultural production and created two million direct jobs and three to four million indirect jobs. It is an important channel of technology transfer that contributes to improving the technological level of the Vietnamese economy. According to the statistics, from 1993 to now, Vietnam had 951 approved/registered technology transfer contracts, of which 605 or 63.6 percent were of the FDI sector. These contracts were implemented through connectivity between FDI and domestic enterprises, through which to create favorable conditions for domestic companies to approach transferred technology. Many made-in-Vietnam products made by FDI businesses have cared a niche in the US, EU, Japan and other foreign markets.
Problems and solutions to solve problems
Minister of Planning and Investment Bui Quang Vinh admitted that the attraction and use of FDI in Vietnam has not reached expectations; the rate of high-tech projects remained low; Vietnam had not attracted any source technology projects; and the percentage of new jobs remained low; investment licensing that is incompliant with approved plans and inefficient use of natural resources were still found in a number of FDI projects. Many FDI projects did not comply with the law of Vietnam. They still involved transfer pricing and discharged wastes into the environment.
According to Minister Bui Quang Vinh, Vietnam is entering a new period with a target of basically becoming a modern, industrialized country by 2020 so FDI attraction in the coming time needs to be implemented according to the four following directions: 1) to create a big change and to shift from a model of attracting as many FDI projects as possible to a model of only attracting quality projects, high-tech and environmentally friendly projects and projects compliant with the orientation on economic restructuring for specific regions and Vietnam as a whole; 2) to attract large-scale projects with highly competitive products that have participated in global value chains of transnational corporations, based on which to construct and develop support industries; 3) to prepare FDI attraction plans by sector, field of operation and partner and in accordance with advantages and potential of specific regions and national benefits; and to gradually shift from attracting FDI based on a low labor cost to attracting FDI based on high-quality resources.
To reach this target, according to Vinh, Vietnam needs to have effective, practical solutions; apart from strengthening macroeconomic stability, expanding the domestic market, solving problems related to infrastructure and human resources, and developing domestic businesses, it is necessary to improve the legal framework for attracting investment that is competitive with that of other countries in the region./.

Source: VEN