Newly pledged foreign direct investment (FDI) continued its downward trend in September, while FDI disbursement maintained its pace.

As of September 20, total pledged FDI capital had reached $9.52 billion, down some 27.9 percent over the same period last year, according to the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

In September alone, the figure was over $1 billion.

Meanwhile, disbursed FDI capital in Jan-Sep reached about $8.1 billion, inching down 1.2 percent year on year.

The figure in September was about $820 million, marking the lowest level in the past five months.

The processing and manufacturing industry sectors topped the list in attracting FDI capital with $6.24 billion, accounting for 65.5 percent of the total.

The real estate sector ranked second with over $1.8 billion for eight projects, increasing about $80 million from August.

The wholesale-retail and media-information sectors reached over $400 million, while other sectors attracted a negligible FDI capital volume.

In January-September, Japan was the biggest foreign investor in Vietnam with $4.67 billion, accounting for 49.1 percent of the total pledged capital. It was followed by Samoa with $889 million, South Korea ($711 million) and the British Virgin Islands ($611 million).

According to figures from the General Statistical Office (GSO), the export turnover of FDI companies (excluding crude oil) reached $5.5 billion in September, lifting the total figure in the first 9 months of this year to $46.14 billion.

If crude oil is included, the export turnover of FDI companies in September reached $6.35 billion, and the accumulated figure in January-September was $52.486 billion, equaling over 62 percent of the country’s total export turnover in the period.

Pledged FDI in the southern economic hub of Ho Chi Minh City in the same period hit $447 million, plunging 76.7 percent over the same period last year.

Meanwhile, HCMC’s neighboring province of Dong Nai attracted over $1 billion of fresh FDI registrations in January-September, up 67 percent year on year.