China, Vietnam and India are the three most popular investment destinations for Singaporean companies, according to the latest quarterly survey of business activity.
The BT-UniSIM survey of 128 companies found that 29% of respondents said they would invest in China within the next two years.
Vietnam took second spot with just under 25% and India was third with 9.7%.
Vietnam has gained in popularity over the past year - in 2006, it also came in second in the overall stakes, but with a lower score of 13%.
"On the planned investments, Vietnam has come up very strongly as a favoured country," said survey director Chow Kit Boey.
This year, Vietnam has been ranked in the top two positions by firms in all sectors, except for commerce, wholesale and retail, hotels and restaurants. Such firms preferred Vietnam to China by a margin of 13 percentage points.
But China fared better overall when the data were broken down by sector - it was the top investment choice across all sectors but commerce.
Compared with last year, the United Arab Emirates has suffered the biggest setback - then, 10% of respondents cited it as their next investment destination but this year, its third-place ranking has been supplanted by India.
However, the UAE remains popular among small and manufacturing firms. On the other hand, India was preferred by foreign firms operating in Singapore, while local firms tended to choose Malaysia and Thailand.
China remains key destination for financial and business services firms, but Indonesia and Japan, as well as Vietnam, were also popular choices.
Singaporean manufacturing firms, however, were partial to India, Malaysia and the UAE as well as firm favourites China and Vietnam.
Other popular countries cited were Australia, the US, South Korea, Singapore, the Philippines and Cambodia
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