HANOI, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Vietnam is expected to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) capital worth 7.5 billion U.S. dollars in the first five months this year, down 23 percent year- on-year, said a report of the Ministry of Planning and Investment (MPI) on Thursday.

Of the total, 7.1 billion U.S. dollars is the combined capital of 360 newly-licensed projects, posting a sharp rise of 40 percent against the same period last year. The rest comes from the increased capital of 107 existing projects in the country.

The Foreign Investment Agency under the MPI forecast that Vietnam can disburse 4.5 billion U.S. dollars out of the total expected FDI capital in the first five months, up 7.1 percent year- on-year.

With this progress, the country is set to meet its FDI disbursement target for this year, said the agency.

According to the agency, the manufacturing and processing industry has aroused the biggest interest of foreign investors in this period. The industry has attracted 2.55 billion U.S. dollars for the implementation of 127 projects, accounting for 33.9 percent of the total FDI attraction.

The electricity, water and gas production and distribution sector comes second with 2.2 billion U.S. dollars, followed by the real estate business with 1.28 billion U.S. dollars.

In the first five months, there have been 36 countries and regions pouring investment into Vietnam. The Netherlands is expected to be the biggest investor with 2.2 billion U.S. dollars put into the country.

The Netherlands is followed by the Republic of Korea and Japan with invested capital of 1.5 billion U.S. dollars and 1.1 billion U.S. dollars respectively, said the agency.