Singapore ranks third among 101 countries and territories investing in Viet Nam, according to a report released this week by the Foreign Investment Agency (FIA) under the Vietnamese Ministry of Planning and Investment.

Singapore had 1,379 valid projects in Viet Nam with a total investment of nearly 33 billion USD as of February this year, according to the report recently unveiled.

A project invested by Singaporean firms costs an average of 24 million USD, higher than other foreign projects in Viet Nam, which are only worth around 14 million USD each.

Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong shaking hands with his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung during the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park Quang Ngai groundbreaking ceremony

Singapore has so far invested in 18 out of 21 sectors in Viet Nam and focuses on the processing industry, manufacturing, and real estate.

The projects are distributed across 44 out of 63 provinces and cities, including offshore oil and gas areas.

The processing and manufacturing sectors have lured the largest investments from Singapore with 426 projects and a total capital of 13.37 billion USD, which accounts for 40.5% of the total Singaporean capital in Viet Nam, the report by the FIA said.

The real estate sector has 74 Singapore-invested projects worth nearly 10 billion USD, which makes up 30.1% of the total.

The third sector that receives the most Singaporean investment is hotel and restaurant services with1.88 billion USD.

Other fields include construction with 1.86 billion USD and art and entertainment with 1.78 billion USD.

During the first two months of this year, Singapore had 12 new projects licensed by Viet Nam and recorded eight times of increasing investment in its existing projects, with total newly-registered and additional capital of 71 million USD.

South Korea has become the top foreign investor in Viet Nam with 4,240 projects worth 37.84 billion USD in total, followed by Japan with 2,556 projects worth 37.37 billion USD, according to the FIA report.