Vietnamese investors channeled a huge part of their outbound investment in the first half of this year into the neighboring country of Laos, the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Ministry of Planning and Investment said.

In the first six months, the ministry licensed 47 overseas projects worth a total of US$155.4 million in 22 countries and territories, with the biggest share going to Laos, the FIA said in a report earlier this month.

Vietnamese investors pledged four new projects and adjusted capital for two existing ones in Laos, with a total investment of $53.9 million in the six-month period, constituting nearly 35 percent of the total, according to the agency.

The U.S. was the second biggest destination for Vietnamese businesses to invest abroad, with seven newly registered projects and one existing one, collectively worth $50.8 million, or 32.7 percent of the total figure.

Vietnam’s investment in Germany accounted for 17 percent of the total, topping $26.5 million.

There is no available data on Vietnam’s overseas investment in the first half of last year for comparison.

But the FIA reported on the outbound investment between January and July 2014, which was $894 million, far greater than the figure in the six-month period of this year.

As of the end of last year, Vietnam had 930 licensed overseas projects with a total capital of $19.78 billion, according to the FIA.

On the other hand, Vietnam received $5.49 billion in foreign direct investment in the first six months of this year, a 19.8 percent decline from the same period last year, the FIA said in a separate report on June 26.

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