Show Me The Money
We knew that 2009 was bad for economies all over the world, but the foreign direct investment numbers posted by Vietnam on December 28 are an eye-opener. FDI in Vietnam for 2009 plummeted by an astonishing 66% from 2008 – to $21.48 billion. There were 839 new investment projects in 2009, a drop of 73% from 2008. The hospitality industry was the most popular investment target, followed by real estate development.
Seychelles: Is This Where The Money Comes From?
The top foreign investor in the country remains the United States, followed by the tax havens of the Cayman Islands and Samoa – which looks a bit peculiar. Vietnam Briefing carried an article last Thursday that details the top ten investment projects in Vietnam during 2009, which adds a bit more color to the sources of the investments. The third largest project on the list, for example, is a housing development projected to provide 90,000 apartments, for whom the partners are Smart Dragon Development from Samoa and Tuster Development from the Seychelles. It appears that neither of these companies has ever done another project anywhere. When I Googled the names, all references came back to the apartment project at Binh Duong. Nor was I able to confirm that they are actually incorporated in the Seychelles or Samoa, which doesn’t mean they aren’t. Curious. I wonder where the money really comes from.
