Vietnam’s investment in Cambodia doubles in 2011

HCMC – Vietnam’s investment in the neighboring countries of Laos and Cambodia kept surging this year, accounting for over half of the country’s total outbound investment, of which the investment in Cambodia has doubled.

As of now, Vietnamese enterprises have invested in some 100 projects in Cambodia, with the total registered capital of US$2.1 billion. This statistics was published by the Foreign Investment Agency under the Ministry of Planning and Investment at the Mekong Investment Cooperation Forum 2011 held in HCMC last weekend.

In 2011 alone, local investors registered the investment capital worth over US$1 billion in the neighboring country, twice as much as the figure last year.

In addition, Vietnamese enterprises have to date also invested in 200 projects in Laos, worth US$3.3 billion in total registered capital. In the January-November period this year, Vietnam’s registered capital in this country amounted to US$500 million, rising by 15% year-on-year.

Currently, Laos attracted most of Vietnam’s overseas investment, followed by Cambodia in the second place. On the other hand, Vietnam is the third biggest investor in the two neighboring countries, after China and Thailand

The majority of Vietnamese investment projects in Laos and Cambodia are in the fields of forestry, agriculture, energy, mining, telecommunication, and banking. Among those, several large-scale projects in Laos will soon start service in 2012.

Big Vietnamese investors in Laos and Cambodia include the military-run Viettel, Vietnam Rubber Industry Group, Hoang Anh Gia Lai Group, and Saigon Invest Group.