Attracting foreign investment in 2025: Welcoming the big wave

Vietnam's foreign investment attraction has had a positive start in the first month of 2025. This brings expectations of a large wave of investment landing in Vietnam in the coming time.

There was more than 4.33 billion USD of foreign investment registered in Vietnam in January 2025, an increase of 48.6% over the same period last year. This is also a fairly large number when calculated by month. Photo: Goertek. Graphics: Dan Nguyen

Smooth start, smooth finish

Figures recently released by the Foreign Investment Agency (Ministry of Planning and Investment) show positive signs for Vietnam's foreign investment attraction in 2025. Specifically, in the first month of the year alone, more than 4.33 billion USD of foreign investment capital was registered in Vietnam, an increase of 48.6% over the same period last year.

If calculated by month, this is a fairly large number, because normally, if there are no billion-dollar projects, the total registered foreign investment capital per month is only around 2-3 billion USD. January 2025 also recorded the first billion-dollar project of the year. That is the project to increase capital by 1.2 billion USD of Samsung Display. This project was granted an investment registration certificate by the leaders of Bac Ninh province on the first working day of the new year 2025.

On the same day, Bac Ninh also granted investment certificates to a series of other projects, with a total registered investment capital of 1.67 billion USD. At that time, speaking at the event, Secretary of the Bac Ninh Provincial Party Committee Nguyen Anh Tuan expressed his joy that many investors continued to choose Bac Ninh as an investment destination.

“Today is the beginning of a new year with lots of good news about attracting investment,” said Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan, adding that Bac Ninh is striving to become a “stronghold” for the world’s leading manufacturers.

Not only Bac Ninh, many other localities also received good news in attracting investment. Binh Duong is an example. In early February 2025, this province granted investment certificates and investment policies to 7 foreign investment projects, with a total investment capital of nearly 1 billion USD. Of these, two VSIP projects alone, including an industrial park infrastructure project and a new urban area project, have an investment capital of more than 812 billion USD. In addition, there are capital increase projects of Cheng Loong Paper, Deneast Vietnam and Dongil Rubber Belt Vietnam...

Projects are pouring in, investment capital will continue to increase. And the special point in the first month of 2025 is that there is a strong increase in additional investment capital and investment capital through capital contribution and share purchase. In January 2025, adjusted investment capital and capital contribution and share purchase reached 2.73 billion USD and 322.9 million USD, respectively, up 509.6% and 70.4% over the same period last year. Because of the strong increase, although the newly registered capital in January 2025 only reached 1.29 billion USD, down 43.6% over the same period, in general, the total registered foreign investment capital still increased by 48.6%.

According to the Foreign Investment Agency, this is a “relatively large” increase, as there were 6 days of Tet holiday in January 2025. In addition, the positive point is that despite the Tet holiday, foreign investors are still actively engaged in production and business activities, so the total disbursed capital has reached about 1.51 billion USD, a slight increase of 2% over the same period.

The above figures further confirm that attracting foreign investment has had a smooth start in 2025. A good start makes a good ending, so there are many expectations for an acceleration and breakthrough in attracting foreign investment this year.

Catch the big wave

In 2024, although the target of attracting 39-40 billion USD in foreign investment capital has not been reached, the figure of 38.23 billion USD is still a remarkable achievement. Moreover, the realized capital also reached a record level, up to 25.35 billion USD. Importantly, the general trend is that foreign investors continue to express interest in Vietnam as an investment destination.

Right before the Lunar New Year, when the Prime Minister visited Europe, a series of leaders of large corporations, such as Visa, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Trip.com…, especially technology corporations such as Google, Siemens, Qualcomn, Ericsson…, shared and expressed their desire to invest and continue to expand investment and business activities in Vietnam, especially in the fields of technology, semiconductors, AI. These are the fields in which Vietnam is expecting to accelerate investment attraction in the coming time.

In a recent report, Savills Vietnam emphasized that Vietnam is becoming a strategic destination for large technology corporations thanks to its favorable geographical location in the global supply chain. “The wave of investment in high-tech projects and research and development centers is driving demand for infrastructure and factories, creating momentum for growth in the industrial real estate market,” said Mr. Thomas Rooney, Deputy Director of Industrial Real Estate Services, Savills Hanoi.

The leader of a large foreign investor shared with Dau Tu Newspaper reporters that his group is planning to invest in a semiconductor project in Vietnam, with a scale that could reach billions of USD. If this project becomes a reality, along with the existing presence of Intel, Amkor, Infineon, Marvell, HanaMicron, etc., Vietnam will become a production "base" for many of the world's leading corporations in the semiconductor field. "However, what we are concerned about is still Vietnam's ability to ensure energy," he said, his biggest concern before deciding to "pour money" into Vietnam.

In addition to semiconductor projects, fields such as electronics are expected to continue to attract large investments, as manufacturers such as Foxconn, Goertek... all plan to expand their investments in Vietnam.

Goertek will increase investment capital in Vietnam to double drone production by 2025. Photo: Goertek

Goertek leaders in the New Year meeting with the Secretary of the Bac Ninh Provincial Party Committee shared that in 2025, Goertek will invest in new projects and bring more experts and new technical equipment to Vietnam.

Currently, Goertek has invested more than 1.3 billion USD in Bac Ninh to build 4 factories, specializing in the production of electronic devices and drones. Information was released from the end of 2024, Goertek will increase investment capital to double the production of drones, from the current 30,000 products to 60,000 products/year, in 2025.

Meanwhile, WHA Group (Thailand) has just received an investment certificate to develop a second industrial park in Nghe An province. In WHA Zone 1 Industrial Park, there are 37 secondary investment projects, including 32 foreign investment projects, with a total investment capital of 1.26 billion USD.

It is no coincidence that both WHA and VSIP are accelerating the construction of infrastructure for new industrial parks. All of this is to anticipate the wave of large investments that will continue to flow into Vietnam.

Source: https://baodautu.vn/thu-hut-du-tu-nuoc-ngoai-nam-2025-don-lan-song-lon-d244927.html