2012 was a successful year for Vietnam-Russia economic, trade and
investment cooperation, with bilateral trade hitting 3.66 billion USD,
up 20 percent year on year.
Vietnamese Trade
Counsellor in Russia Pham Quang Niem made the statement in an interview
with Vietnam News Agency after a meeting was held for the two countries’
businesses and media in Moscow on February 28.
According to Niem, Russia’s exports to Vietnam increased by nearly 4
percent to 1.388 billion USD last year, while buying from Vietnam 2.272
billion USD worth of goods, up 32 percent. Vietnam mainly imported
petroleum, metals, chemicals, machineries and equipment, fertilisers and
paper from Russia, and exported garments and textiles, footwear,
seafood, noodles, vegetables, rubber, coffee and rice.
Russia has 83 FDI projects in Vietnam with total capital of
924 million USD in the fields of oil and gas, heavy and light
industries, transport and fishing. Vietnam has invested 777 million
USD in Russia. Two Russia-Vietnam oil and gas joint ventures,
RusVietPetro and GazpromViet, have been operating effectively in
Russia .
The two countries also established a
high-level working group to promote priority joint projects, which is
expected to increase bilateral trade to 7 billion USD by 2015.
Niem said Hanoi will host the first round of negotiations between
Vietnam and the Customs Alliance of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan in
March, and will discuss the establishment of a free trade area between
the four countries.-VNA