Foreign investment falls 18.24pct

[Foreign investment falls 18.24pct] Foreign direct investment (FDI) fell 18.24 percent to $7.48 billion last year from a year earlier as COVID-19 spread worldwide, the Investment Commission said yesterday. The number of approved applications from foreign investors fell 20.68 percent year-on-year to 2,711, it said. Foreign investment is mainly in financial services and insurance, wholesale and retail trade, real-estate activities, information and communication technologies (ICT), and electronic parts and components manufacturing, the commission said. ICT saw the largest year-on-year increase in FDI inflows at 72.08 percent, while inflows to the real-estate industry grew by 38.03 percent year-on-year, it said. The…