The country has attracted US$8.7 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) despite the global economic downturn, said the Director of the Foreign Investment Agency, Phan Huu Thang on June 23.

In the first six months, as many as 306 projects were licensed with a combined registered capital of US$4.7 billion and 68 existing projects were allowed to increase their investment capital by US$4.1 billion, according to reports.

The industrial and manufacturing sectors surpassed real estate to become the second largest favourite destination for investments with US$1.56 billion in registered capital, of which US$1.38 billion was newly registered.

Export services in the FDI sector are expected to reach US$13.6 billion in the first six months of this year, 81 percent against the same period last year, making up 49.3 percent of the nation’s total.

The value of imports is likely to top US$10.5 billion.

Mr Thang said that new FDI would hit US$20 billion and US$8 billion would be disbursed by the years-end. These figures are close to the country’s predicted GDP of five percent this year.

The agency forecasts that next year, newly licensed FDI capital will reach US$22 billion, an increase of 20 percent from this year and exports will rise by 24 percent in value./.