Vietnam has licensed 199 foreign- invested projects with registered capital of over 1.9 billion U.S. dollars so far this year, posting year-on-year rises of 12.4 percent and 31.9 percent respectively, according to a local investment agency on Monday.

Meanwhile, the country lured additional 358.6 million dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 117 operational projects, the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said. The biggest investors were mainly from South Korea, Japan, China's Taiwan and the United States.

The foreign-invested sector is estimated to reap turnovers of nearly 7.3 billion dollars, excluding earnings from crude oil sales, in the first four months of this year, up 13.3 percent over the same period last year.

To lure more FDI, the Vietnamese government and localities will create a more liberal investment environment and lower fee charges, especially on telecommunications and air transport service, deputy minister of Planning and Investment Tran Dinh Khien said at a press conference recently.

Vietnam attracted nearly 5.9 billion dollars worth of FDI in 2005, up 40.2 percent over 2004, he noted. By March 20, it housed 6,162 foreign-invested projects with total registered capital of 52.6 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua