Hanoi  - Vietnam has attracted 15.3 billion dollars worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) commitments so far this year, compared with 4.4 billion dollars over the same period last year, an official said Monday.

The figure includes 14.7 billion dollars for 324 newly licensed projects and 600 million dollars for expansion of 130 existing projects, according to Phan Huu Thang, director of the Ministry of Planning and Investment's Foreign Investment Department.

"The sharp rise in the FDI inflow is credited to the improvement in Vietnam's investment climate, the country's steady economic growth and its stable political situation," Thang told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Canada is the largest source of new foreign investment this year, largely due to a Canadian firm's gigantic 4.2 billion-dollar casino and tourism complex in the southern seaside city of Vung Tau. The project, developed by Asian Coast Development Ltd, has become the largest single FDI project in Vietnam.

According to Thang, most of the newly licensed projects are in real estate development, and they tend increasingly to be located in provinces other than the country's economic capitals of Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi.

Thang said the increase in FDI will not have an impact on Vietnam's dangerously high inflation rate, which hit 21 per cent in April.

"It doesn't make inflation worse, as many of the new FDI projects are involved in property development, and it takes years to disburse all the investment capital," Thang said. (dpa)