Vietnam is estimated to attract 5.8 billion US dollars of foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2005, compared with 4.2 billion dollars last year, according to a local investment agency on Monday.

The country enticed FDI of nearly 5.3 billion dollars in the first 11 months of this year, surging 40.3 percent over the same period last year, said the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

To lure more FDI, Vietnam is focusing on intensifying investment promotion in such fields as new material and energy, information technology, infrastructure, environment preservation, tourism, education, healthcare and sports.

The country has recently issued the list of 94 national key projects calling for FDI in the 2006-2010 period. Capitalized at nearly 25.7 billion dollars, the projects mainly involve in infrastructure, high technology and industry development.

As of mid-November, Vietnam housed 5,815 operational FDI projects with total registered capital of 49.8 billion dollars, the department said.

Source: Xinhua