Vietnam has so far this year licensed 113 foreign-invested projects with registered capital of nearly 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, posting respective year-on-year rises of 16 percent and 15 percent, according to a local investment agency on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the country lured additional 135 million dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 38 operational projects, the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said, noting that biggest investors were mainly from South Korea, Japan, China's Taiwan and the United States.

Vietnam has also disbursed 452 million dollars of FDI in the period, the department said.

A department official recently said Vietnam has targeted to attract foreign investment of 5 billion dollars this year, down from 5.8 billion dollars last year, citing slow infrastructure construction and changes in the investment law as major reasons.

"However, we can beat the 5-billion dollar target easily," the official said on condition of anonymity, noting that Vietnam enticed foreign investment of 5.8 billion dollars in 2005, up from the target of 4.5 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua