Barriers are being removed for quality investment

Vietnam's allure to foreign funding is remaining robust.

- Nguyen Tuan Khoi, foreign investment consultant at Dezan Shira & Associates, shared with VIR's Thanh Van his insights into the coun- try's foreign capital inflows.

What has been the performance of foreign direct investment (FDI) attraction in Vietnam so far in 2026?

In the first two months of the year, Vietnam's FDI performance presents a balanced picture of resilience and cautious optimism. Disbursed FDI reached $3.21 billion, representing an 8.8 per cent on-year increase and the highest level for the January-February period in the past five years.

This strong implementation reflects the maturity of previously licensed projects, particularly in high-tech manufacturing and industrial infrastructure.

Total registered FDI reached $6.03 billion, down 12.6 per cent compared with the same period of 2025. However, this decline mainly reflects a sharp reduction in capital adjustments for existing projects, which fell by more than 52 per cent to $1.99 billion, as well as a slight decline in share acquisitions.

Importantly, newly registered capital has increased significantly. New registrations totalled $3.54 billion across 620 new ventures, up 61.5 per cent on-year, and the number of new ones rose 23.8 per cent. This suggests that while investors may be cautious about expanding existing projects in the current global environment, they remain strongly interested in establishing new operations in Vietnam.