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Trade with Russians may hit $3b next year as doors keep opening
Bilateral relations between Viet Nam and Russia have developed significantly over the past few years, Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI) General Secretary Pham Thi Thu Hang said at a business conference in the capital on Oct 20.
Two-way trade rose from US$300-400 million in the 1990s to $2.4 billion in 2010. Turnover was expected to reach $3 billion in 2012 and $10 billion in 2020, she said.
However, there was still room for developing the relatively modest two-way trade further, she said, adding that last year, Vietnamese exports to Russia accounted for merely 0.3 per cent of the country's total import turnover.
Hang said that she hoped yesterday's event, with the participation from over 100 businesses, would open a new page for bilateral co-operation based on commerce and investment.
Vietnamese enterprises have been paying increasing attention to the Russian market, said Pham Vu Hai, Director of the Investment Promotion Centre-North Viet Nam under the Ministry of Planning and Investment.
Currently, Russia was Viet Nam's second largest outbound investment market after Laos. To date, Vietnamese companies have invested $1.67 billion in 18 projects in Russia. These projects mostly involved oil and gas, banking and trade.
Meanwhile, Russian companies have pumped $910 million into Viet Nam, helping the country rank 23rd among those investing in the Southeast Asian nation.
During the event, Russian enterprises expressed their hopes for accelerating co-operation with Vietnamese partners in biological technologies, oil and gas, mining, pharmaceuticals, machinery, energy and electronics.
Yesterday also witnessed a co-operation agreement inked between the Viet Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Moscow Entrepreneurs Association.
Under the agreement, the two sides would join hands in strengthening and expanding economic and commercial ties between Russian and Vietnamese companies.
They would also co-ordinate in organising business conferences as well as trade fairs and exhibitions in order to help firms better update each other with market information and business opportunities.
A delegation of 15 leading businesses from Russia also met with local businesspeople in HCM City yesterday to examine mutual investment opportunities.
They met with local businesspeople at a seminar organised by the VCCI's branch in HCM City in collaboration with the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry based in the country's Tomsk region.
Andrey Trubitsin, Vice Governor of the Tomsk region, which is one of four technology development economic areas in Russia, said Vietnamese businesses would be entitled to preferential taxes, including a 0 per cent transport tax for 10 years, 0 per cent property tax for 10 years, 0 per cent for imported customs and 0 per cent land tax for five years. The other tech-development areas include St. Petersburg, Moscow (Zelenograd administrative district), and the Dubna area around Moscow.
The visiting Russian businesses operate in various sectors, including information technology, health equipment, medicine, electricity cables, hi-tech, investment funds, oil and gas, software and biotechnology.
The Tomsk region has some of Russia's top universities and talented professionals, with the highest percentage of tertiary-level graduates. Many IT and scientific research companies are located there as well.
The region is one of Russia's top five in producing oil and gas, ranking first in fresh and mineral water supply and second in lignum fossil supply.
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