Vietnam FDI Hits Record $50.36B in 9M 2026; PV Power (POW) LNG Project in Focus

Overview

Vietnam’s registered foreign direct investment (FDI) reached a record $50.36 billion in the first nine months of 2026, up 76.4% year-on-year, according to the General Statistics Office under the Ministry of Finance. The surge was concentrated in a handful of large projects, including the more than $2.2 billion Quynh Lap LNG thermal power plant in Nghệ An, developed by a consortium involving PV Power (POW), South Korea’s SK Innovation and Mía đường Nghệ An. For POW, Vietnam’s listed power utility on HOSE, the project places it at the center of the country’s LNG-to-power buildout even as actual FDI disbursement lags the headline registration figure.

Key Facts

• Registered FDI for January-September 2026: $50.36 billion, up 76.4% versus the same period in 2025.
• Disbursed FDI: just over $21 billion, up 12.1% year-on-year, the highest nine-month figure in five years.
• Newly licensed capital was 2.4 times the year-earlier level, while the number of new projects rose only about 6%.
• The Quynh Lap LNG plant, involving PV Power (POW), SK Innovation and Mía đường Nghệ An, carries total investment of more than $2.2 billion; technical infrastructure broke ground on 18 May.
• Nghệ An ranked sixth nationally by total registered capital despite only 12 new projects.
• Thái Nguyên recorded 24 new projects worth $8 billion, nearly double Bắc Ninh’s 277 projects.
• Hồ Chí Minh City led with more than $18 billion in registered capital, including the $4.9 billion Cần Giờ international transshipment port and a $2.1 billion AI Factory data center.

What Happened

The General Statistics Office reported that cumulative registered FDI through 30 September 2026 reached $50.36 billion. In the office’s data series going back to 1988, only 2008 recorded a higher full-year registered figure. The gap between registration and execution remained wide: disbursed capital exceeded $21 billion, up 12.1%, with more than 80% still flowing into manufacturing and processing, essentially unchanged from a year earlier.

The skew toward large projects was most visible in newly licensed capital, which rose 2.4 times year-on-year even as the project count grew only slightly. According to the Nghệ An provincial government, the Quynh Lap LNG thermal power plant — a joint venture of PV Power (POW), SK Innovation and Mía đường Nghệ An — has total capital of more than $2.2 billion and began technical infrastructure construction on 18 May. Savills Vietnam’s John Campbell, Director and Head of Industrial Services, described the shift as a move from broad-based manufacturing expansion toward deeper, technology- and scale-intensive investment.

Market Context

POW closed at 12,650 on 6 October 2026 on HOSE. The stock trades within Vietnam’s utilities sector, where LNG and gas-to-power projects are a central plank of the national power development plan. The FDI report arrives alongside a broader reallocation of foreign capital into transport and warehousing, which at 17.6% of new capital overtook real estate and ranked second behind manufacturing, whose share fell to 45.8% from 58.7%. Singapore and South Korea led investors with $12.85 billion and $9.75 billion respectively, while Luxembourg ranked among the top four sources on just two projects.

Strategic Significance

For POW, Quynh Lap is a test of whether the company can convert policy backing for LNG power into operating capacity and contracted offtake. The project’s scale — above $2.2 billion and backed by a Korean industrial partner — gives POW a visible role in Vietnam’s baseload transition, but the economics depend on power purchase agreements, gas supply terms and the tariff framework that the Ministry of Industry and Trade has yet to finalize for LNG plants. The record FDI headline also matters for POW indirectly: the concentration of capital in a few mega-projects means the company competes for the same pool of foreign partners, contractors and financing as the Cần Giờ port and AI data center schemes, and its ability to reach financial close will be read as a signal on Vietnam’s LNG pipeline more broadly.

What to Watch

• Signing of the power purchase agreement and gas supply arrangements for the Quynh Lap LNG plant.
• Monthly and quarterly FDI registration and disbursement data from the General Statistics Office for evidence the $50.36 billion converts into executed capital.
• POW’s next quarterly earnings release and any project-level disclosure on Quynh Lap construction progress.
• Ministry of Industry and Trade guidance on LNG pricing and the revised power development plan.
• Foreign-ownership and shareholder filings for POW and its consortium partners.