Vietnam has so far this year licensed 281 foreign-invested projects with registered capital of over 2 billion U.S. dollars, posting year-on-year rises of 8.5 percent and 19.5 percent respectively, according to official sources on Friday.

Meanwhile, the country lured additional 400 million dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 145 operational projects, said the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The biggest investors were mainly from South Korea, Japan, China's Taiwan and the United States, said the department.

Foreign-invested projects in Vietnam have so far this year disbursed roughly 1.5 billion U.S. dollars, posting a record year- on-year rise of 22 percent.

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 recent press conference.

Vietnam attracted nearly 5.9 billion U.S. dollars worth of FDI in 2005, up 40.2 percent over 2004, he noted. As of April 20, it housed 6,260 foreign-invested projects with total registered capital of nearly 53.5 billion dollars.

Source: Xinhua