A statement on the Vietnam government's official portal was amended on Wednesday to remove a reference to the country's commercial hub of Ho Chi Minh City trying to attract $3.3 billion in additional investment from U.S. chip giant Intel Corp.

Asked about the initial post and reports on the investment, Intel said in a statement: "Vietnam is an important part of our global manufacturing network, but we have not announced any new investments."

Intel has a chip packaging and testing factory in Ho Chi Minh City, in the south of the country, which is its biggest worldwide, where it is estimated it has so far invested around $1.5 billion.

The statement on the portal quoted Pham Tuan Anh, an official in the city's planning and investment department, as saying: "If successful in attracting $3.3 billion of additional investment from Intel Products Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City would receive $7.4 billion worth of foreign direct investment this year."

This was later amended to remove the reference to Intel and reduced the forecast on Ho Chi Minh City's foreign investment this year to a range of $4.1-4.5 billion range, from $3.9 billion in 2022.

Pham could not immediately be reached for comment and officials at the city's planning and investment department declined to comment. (Reporting by Khanh Vu, Phuong Nguyen and Francesco Guarascio in Hanoi Editing by Ed Davies)