US foreign direct investment in Vietnam jumped to almost 4 billion dollars in the first eight months of 2009 while other countries' investments declined, making the United States the top source of investment in Vietnam, a government official said Wednesday.

Le Hai Van, head of the statistics division of Vietnam's Foreign Investment Agency, said US firms accounted for 37 per cent of foreign investment in Vietnam through August.

In the same period of 2008, US investment amounted to 3 per cent of Vietnam's total of 46.3 billion dollars.

US investment has concentrated on the service sector, especially the hotel and tourism industry.

Traditionally the largest foreign investors in Vietnam have been South Korea, Taiwan, Malaysia, Japan and Singapore with the United States lagging far behind.

In the latest figures, Taiwan ranked second in new investment with 1.35 billion dollars, followed by South Korea in third with 1.2 billion dollars.

Vietnam has attracted 10.5 billion dollars in new foreign investment this year, down 73 per cent compared with the same period in 2008.

The service sector attracted the most with 4.6 billion dollars. Foreign direct investment in processing industries surpassed real estate to become the second largest sector, attracting 2.3 billion dollars.

Asian investors still have the most total registered foreign investments in Vietnam. As of August 19, Taiwan was the top investor with projects worth 21.2 billion dollars, followed by South Korea at 20.1 billion dollars.

The United States is the seventh largest direct investor in Vietnam overall.