Vietnam’s total outbound investment in the first three months of the year reached an estimated US$120 million, according to the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
An oil and gas exploration project of PetroVietnam Exploration Production Corporation (PVEP) in Peru. Photo: PVEP
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In the first quarter of 2019, the science and technology sector was the most heavily invested by Vietnamese companies abroad, with US$67.8 million, accounting for 56.5% of the total outbound investment.
It was followed by the banking sector with US$36 million, accounting for 30% of the total, while the third place belonged to wholesale and retail sector with US$10.7 million, or 8.95%.
The statistics showed that among the 18 countries and territories invested by local companies between January and March, Spain was the largest recipient with US$59.8 million. Cambodia and the US claimed the second and third places with US$37.9 million and US$11 million, respectively.
On the other hand, Vietnam’s foreign direct investment commitments in the first quarter of the year totaled US$10.8 billion, the largest first-three-month performance to date and soaring 86.2% year-on-year.
According to a government report on management of state capital and assets at state-owned enterprises in the period of 2011-2016, the total registered capital of outbound investment of projects was up to US$12.6 billion.
State-run energy firm Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PetroVietnam) had registered the largest amount of capital, accounting for more than half.
State-owned enterprises disbursed more than half of total US$12.6 billion in registered capital. Specifically, by the end of 2016, state-owned enterprises had invested US$7 billion abroad, with PetroVietnam taking the first place with over US$3.4 billion, according to BizLIVE.
Notably, only four out of 18 state-owned enterprises could start to repatriate profits, totaling US$1.5 billion, equal to 22% of the capital disbursed.
According to the report, the economic efficiency of outbound investment of state-owned enterprises was weak. One fourth of the projects reported losses in 2016; 29% of projects reported accumulated losses by the end of 2016, and even more alarming, nearly half of the projects had no revenue-profit reports.
