Foreign investors' confidence in ASEAN now has returned to the level before the Asian financial crisis in 1997, the ASEAN Investment Area (AIA) Council said here on Monday.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in ASEAN totaled 38 billion U.S. dollars, up 48 percent year-on-year and already superseding 34.1 billion U.S. dollars in 1997, according to the statistics from the secretariat of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

This shows that ASEAN's attractiveness as an investment destination is being reinforced and the grouping is back on its growth trend before the year 1997 when it was struck by the so- called Financial Storm, the Council said in a statement after its ninth meeting.

The approved FDI in the manufacturing sector recorded 27.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2005, up 33 percent from the previous year. The top five sectors with substantial FDI interest were refined petroleum products, radio, television and communication equipment, motor vehicles, food products and electrical machinery.

Being optimistic that the growth in FDI flows into ASEAN will remain in the future, the council urged ASEAN investment officials to organize more inbound investment promotion missions or events in this regard.

Source: Xinhua