Newly pledged foreign direct investment into Viet Nam fell an estimated 88%, or 8.5 times, in January from a year earlier to $200 million from $1.7 billion, a Ministry of Planning and Investment official said Monday.

As well, the FDI value in January was down 82% from December, because most projects that received licenses were small scale, said the official with the ministry’s Foreign Investment Department.

The official didn’t provide the number of licensed projects or the total value of foreign companies’ disbursed funds.

According to state-run Hanoi Moi newspaper, foreign companies’ total disbursement fell 30% on year last month.

The value of foreign-invested firms’ total exports in January, excluding crude oil, was down 13.7% to $1.67 billion, while the value of their imports decreased 41% to $1.30 billion, government figures showed.

Though global investment flows are shrinking because of the financial crisis, the ministry predicts Viet Nam will continue to attract actual disbursed FDI of $ 9.5 billion-$12 billion this year.

Foreign investors disbursed $11.5 billion in Viet Nam in 2008, up 44% from 2007. (Dow Jones)