Vietnam eyes 47 billion USD of foreign capital in 5 years

Vietnam's Finance Ministry has planned to mobilize 45-47 billion U.S. dollars from external sources like foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance, between 2006 and 2010, local newspaper Vietnam Economic Times reported Monday.

Of the capital, 21-22 billion dollars are expected to come from FDI, 17 billion dollars from official development assistance, 6-7 billion dollars from foreign indirect investment and commercial loans, and 1 billion dollars from non-refundable aid.

The capital mobilization plan does not include money sent home by overseas Vietnamese. They are estimated to annually remit home, on average, 4 billion dollars, in the five-year period.

To realize the targets, the ministry has worked out some specific measures to better manage and use official development assistance, and perfect investment-related legal documents and policies, the newspaper said. The Vietnamese government and localities will create a more liberal investment environment and lower fees, especially transport freights.

Vietnam attracted roughly 5.9 billion dollars worth of FDI in 2005, up 40.2 percent over 2004. By March 20, it housed 6,162 foreign-invested projects with total registered capital of 52.6 billion dollars, according to the country's Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Source: Xinhua