Vietnam attracted 21.2 billion U.S. dollars of foreign investment in the first nine months of this year, a year-on-year decrease of 18.9 percent, its General Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

Specifically, Vietnam licensed 1,947 foreign direct investment (FDI) projects with total registered capital of 10.4 billion U.S. dollars, and saw 798 operational FDI projects raise their capital by more than 5.1 billion U.S. dollars, according to the office.

Between January and September, foreign investors also spent 5.7 billion U.S. dollars buying shares or contributing capital to Vietnamese firms, down 44.9 percent year on year.

Among nearly 13.8 billion U.S. dollars of FDI disbursed, 71.2 percent were poured into the processing and manufacturing sector, 14.3 percent into the real estate sector, and 6.9 percent into the electricity, gas, hot water, steam and air-conditioner production and distribution sector.

Among 72 countries and regions which had investment projects licensed in Vietnam in the first nine months of this year, Singapore was Vietnam's largest source of foreign investment with 4.7 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 44.9 percent of the total investment, followed by China with over 10.4 percent and South Korea with nearly 10.4 percent respectively, said the office.