Hanoi, Oct. 1 -- Following the administrative merger, the northern province of Bac Ninh catapulted to the top of Vietnam's foreign direct investment (FDI) rankings in the first eight months of the year, overtaking Ho Chi Minh City.

While news of Goertek Vina's decision to halt operations at its audio and multimedia products manufacturing plant in Bac Ninh continues to surprise many observers, the company remains one of the province's largest investors to date.

Since entering Vietnam in 2013, China's Goertek, a manufacturing partners of Apples' AirPods, has built four factories in Bac Ninh with registered capital of more than 1.3 billion USD. Most recently, it poured additional 130 million USD to its project at Nam Son - Hap Linh Industr...