HCMC – Fresh foreign direct investment (FDI) approvals nationwide in the year to April 20 had reached nearly US$8.9 billion, down 17.9% against the year-ago period, according to the Foreign Investment Agency at the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

There were 750 new FDI projects registered during the period, with total pledged capital of US$4.1 billion. An additional US$1.6 billion was injected into 386 operational FDI projects during the period.

In addition, foreign investors got involved in 1,044 mergers and acquisitions worth a total of US$3.1 billion.

The processing and manufacturing industries accounted for half of the country’s fresh FDI capital between January and April, drawing roughly US$5.1 billion.

The financial and banking services came second with US$1.5 billion, or 17% of the total. The real estate sector ranked third with US$972 million.

Hanoi topped the country in terms of new FDI capital in the January-April period, totaling over US$1.1 billion.

The country had had 37,065 operational FDI projects as of April 20, with total capital of US$445 billion.