Vietnam attracted foreign direct investment (FDI) of 444 million U.S. dollars in the first 20 days of this month, up 18.4 percent against last January, a local investment agency said Wednesday.

"From Jan. 1-20, Vietnam licensed 58 FDI projects worth 419 million dollars and saw 11 operational projects increase their capital by 25 million dollars," said the Foreign Investment Department under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

A department official said that Vietnam has targeted to attract FDI of 5 billion dollars this year, down from 5.8 billion dollars last year, citing slow infrastructure construction and changes in the investment law as major reasons.

"It takes time for foreign investors to study the new Common Investment Law (which is to take effect in July), and future guidelines, the official said on condition of anonymity, adding that infrastructure development in Vietnam may not keep pace with increasing demand of more and more investors.

"However, we can beat the 5-billion dollar target easily," the official said, noting that Vietnam enticed FDI of 5.8 billion dollars in 2005, up from the target of 4.5 billion dollars.

Vietnam licensed 771 FDI projects totaling 4 billion dollars and saw 508 operational projects increase their capital by more than 1.8 billion dollars last year.

Source: Xinhua