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Business Desk

Viet Nam News

Publication Date : 28-01-2013

Bilateral trade between Vietnam and Russia hit a record high of more than US$3.6 billion last year, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

Both countries maintained an upward trend in their trade exchange despite the negative impact of the global economic slowdown last year.

Vietnamese exports rose more than 32 per cent to $2.3 billion, while Russian exports also increased 16 per cent to $1.3 billion. The figures were exclusive of oil trading.

The main Vietnamese exports to Russia are textiles and garments and agricultural and fishery products. Russia exports petrol, steel, fertiliser and machinery to Vietnam.

Vietnam and Russia hope to achieve $7 billion in bilateral trade by 2015 through expanding various trade channels and strengthening trade in the sectors of science-technology, education and training and tourism.

Domestic trade officials expected that Vietnamese exports to Russia would surge significantly after Russia lowers import taxes on Vietnamese agricultural products by 30-50 per cent in the next three to four years.

The move is one of the trade commitments that Russia made when it became a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Import taxes on clothes, leather items and seafood will also fall.

Moreover, tariffs could fall to zero on other goods if Vietnam and the customs unions of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan sign a Free Trade Agreement. The two sides will start talks over this FTA in the first quarter of 2013 and aim to sign it two years later.

The two countries' bilateral trade turnover reached $1.98 billion last year, an increase of 8.1 per cent from 2010.

Russia is ranked 23rd of the countries that invest in Vietnam. Most of the investment is in the fields of mining, processing, manufacturing, banking and telecommunications.

Russian investors recently agreed to implement several major investment projects in Vietnam, including a titanium slag plant, a power generator manufacturing plant and a hotel complex.