The Vietnam-Russia Business Forum took place in Saint Petersburg on May 29 with the participation of 18 enterprises from Vietnam and 60 firms of Russia.

Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Trade Promotion Agency under the Vietnamese Ministry
of Industry and Trade (C) speaks at the forum (Photo: VNA)

The event created an opportunity for Vietnamese firms to introduce their products with high quality, eye-catching designs, and competitive prices to Russian businesses, distributors, and customers.

For Russian exporters and investors, this was a great chance to know more about Vietnam as an attractive, safe, and potential destination which boasts free trade relations with dozens of countries worldwide, including G20 and G7 nations.

Vu Ba Phu, Director of the Trade Promotion Agency under the Vietnamese Ministry of Industry and Trade, said that trade cooperation between Vietnam and Russia has developed positively in recent years.

Under the Look East policy, Russia considers Vietnam an important partner in the Asia-Pacific region, while Vietnam always give top priority to expanding comprehensive cooperation with Russia, Phu said.

Two-way trade has continuously increased over the past time, reaching 1.14 billion USD in the first quarter of 2019, a year-on-year rise of 12.4 percent, he noted.

Phu added that Vietnamese businesses will boost investment in Russia in the coming time with the support of the Saint-Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Moscow authorities, and Russian governmental agencies.

Vietnamese Trade Counselor in Russia Duong Hoang Minh said in 2018, Vietnam recorded gross domestic product (GDP) growth of 7.08 percent, the highest level since 2008, while also listed among the economies with the fastest growth rate in the region and the world.

Most of the investment capital inflow into Vietnam mainly comes from the Republic of Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and China, he said, adding that foreign investors choose Vietnam as an investment destination due to its political stability, expanded cooperation, high economic growth, competitive product prices, abundant human resources, global economic integration, open policies with attractive preferences, and strategic position in the Southeast Asian market and the East-West economic corridor.

Vietnam is calling for investment in the fields using modern and environmentally-friendly technologies, infrastructure development projects, information technology, and projects supporting electrical engineering, garment-textile, and automation industries, he added.

Vice President of the Saint-Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry Elena Zheltukhina recognised important milestones in the bilateral cooperation, especially the celebration of the 25th signing anniversary of the treaty on the basic principles of the bilateral friendship and the 70th founding anniversary of diplomatic ties in 2019.

After Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to Russia, including his working trip to Saint-Petersburg, many Russian businesses in the city have shown their interest in cooperation with Vietnam and the promotion of trade exchanges, she said.

Saint Petersburg is also a world leading attractive tourism destination and as such, businesses of the two sides will have many favourable conditions to develop common tourism products to attract tourists from the respective markets, she added.