Vietnam always welcomes and is willing to create favourable conditions for Russian enterprises to do business and invest in the country, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed when addressing the Vietnam-Russia Business Forum held in Moscow on May 22.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc speaks at the forum (Source: VNA)

PM Phuc, who is on an official visit to Russia from May 21-23, said that the forum aimed to seek better and more effective and timely measures to ensure that bilateral cooperation matches the Vietnam-Russia sound relations.

He briefed participants on Vietnam’s socio-economic achievements after more than 30 years of renewal. Last year, the country’s GDP growth rate made an 11-year record high at 7.1 percent, while its import-export turnover reached nearly 500 billion USD. Inflation was curbed under 4 percent and the macro-economy remained stable.

According to the government leader, at present, Vietnam has 28,000 foreign-invested projects from 131 countries and territories, with a combined capital of over 350 billion USD. Last year, the country welcomed 15.5 million foreign tourists, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent.

PM Phuc attributed these positive results to improvements in Vietnam’s business environment and its efforts to integrate into the global economy by signing 11 free trade agreements (FTA) and preparing for the signing of an FTA with the European Union (EU).

He underlined the positive impacts of the Eurasia Economic Union-Vietnam FTA on Vietnam’s trade and investment, thus contributing to a 28.6-percent increase in its trade turnover with Russia to hit 4.57 billion USD in 2018.

Vietnam is now the 23rd biggest trade partner of Russia and is running 20 projects worth 3 billion USD in the country, while Russia has 123 projects (excluding those related to oil and gas) totaling 1 billion USD in Vietnam.

However, the PM said that these results have failed to match with potential of both nations.

He expressed his hope that two-way trade can reach 10 billion USD by 2020 after non-tariff barriers on major commodities are removed and a bilateral payment channel using local currencies is launched.

For his part, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov noted that economic and trade cooperation between Russia and Vietnam has been built on the firm foundation of the time-honoured bilateral friendship.

Vietnam has affirmed itself as a key partner of Russia in Southeast Asia as it accounts for one-third of Russia’s imports from the regional countries, the Deputy PM stated.

He suggested that both sides intensify collaboration in high technology, affirming that Russia is willing to support Vietnam in the fields of digital government and smart city building, as well as cybersecurity.

Earlier the same day, PM Phuc laid flowers in tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his statue in Moscow.