VIETNAM

Nation Sees Sharp Increase in Foreign Investment: Foreign investment in communist Vietnam leaped to about $2 billion in 1992 and could rise sharply again in 1993 if the United States lifts its punishing trade embargo, Vietnam’s investment minister said last week. “In 1992, Vietnam granted licenses to around 200 projects with a total registered capital of nearly $2 billion,” Dau Ngoc Xuan, minister of the State Committee for Cooperation and Investment, told reporters. That was a sharp increase from the $1.2 billion in 1991 and $590 million in 1990. Diplomats and businessmen in Hanoi say an end to the embargo on trade and investment seems imminent. In December, President Bush took a step in that direction by authorizing U.S. companies to open offices and sign contracts that can take effect when the embargo is lifted. The embargo has blocked Hanoi from tapping low-cost funds from the International Monetary Fund and World Bank and from getting easy access to commercial overseas loans that are badly needed to repair its war-torn economy.