OREANDA-NEWS. August 8, 2012. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce of the Russian Federation was hosting the Russia-Vietnam Business Forum attended by Chyong Tan Shanga, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). The Forum was held with participation of representative Vietnamese delegation, CCI leaders, and Russian business community.

The meeting was opened and presided by Sergey Katyrin. CCI President. In his opening speech, he welcomed Vietnamese guests in the Chamber and stressed that cooperation between Russia and Vietnam has been historically supported by established traditions of mutual understanding and friendship. A high level of political relations between the two countries, and participation of Vietnamese President in the Forum were to ensure further improvement and development of business interactions especially taking into account that Russian business community, in particular small and medium businesses, becomes increasingly interested in this relationship. Just the year 2012 has already seen several tens of visits by Russian businessmen to Vietnam that resulted in a number of promising business transactions. The Chamber is committed to promotion of Russian-Vietnamese business connections and growth of sales between the two countries as its strategic tasks in the short run.

In her greeting speech, Elvira Nabiullina, Assistant to the RF President, mentioned that since 2007 sales between Russia and Vietnam increased more than threefold. This trend provides grounds to expect them to reach USD 4 billion by late 2012. Vietnamese goods exported to Russia include primarily apparel, footwear, sea food, agricultural products, while Russian exports to Vietnam cover machines and equipment, and metal products. The structure of bilateral sales is consistently improved through increasing portion of finished products and high value-added items. Another successful development line of sales cooperation relates to shipments of oil and gas products. Currently, the parties are considering the shipment of Russian liquefied gas to Vietnam. The joint project of construction of nuclear power plant in Vietnam with the help of Russian specialists is approaching its implementation stage.

High-profile areas of cooperation include machinery, telecommunications, mining and aircraft industries, as well as development of interregional cooperation. Also, the parties are considering the Vietnamese proposal to agree on establishment of free trade area between SRV and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

In his speech, Chyong Tan Shanga, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam thanked the Russian party for the organization of the Forum with the Chamber and reported about new areas of strategic partnership outlined during his meeting with Vladimir Putin, RE President, and Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister. Mr. Tan Shanga finds great potential for the parties’ cooperation in various areas such as oil and gas industry, tourism, property development, and nuclear energy. The SRV President also emphasized that over the recent years Vietnam has been strengthening its positions at global scene, and improving its legal base intended to facilitate doing business by foreign companies including Russian enterprises. Also, Vietnam places much importance on its investments in Russian economy.

After his address, SRV President signed the Distinguished Visitor’s Book of CCI of Russia and took part in ceremony for ratification of bilateral agreements regarding seafood exports, financial cooperation, and manufacture of titanium alloys between Russian and Vietnamese corporations.

Wu Tien Pok, President of Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce, launched the second part of the Forum. In his speech, he noted that, as its immediate goal, the Chamber of Vietnam is committed to increase the cumulative Russian investments up to USD 2 billion. According to Wu Tien Pok, in 2012 Vietnam was ranked the 12th world’s investment friendly state and the 3rd state in terms of consumer market growth rates, which market is currently estimated at USD 200 billion. Vietnam encourages investments in environmentally safe infrastructure projects consisting in refurbishment of state-owned enterprises, information technologies, industrial production and processing, and invites investors from Russia, Japan, the USA and other countries. In addition, Vietnam welcomes the involvement of foreign investors in privatization of state-owned companies.

Mikchail Slipenchuck, Chairman of Business Council with Vietnam, took up the issue of how to further the Russian and Vietnamese economic links. By his words, the structure of Russian exports to Vietnam starts concentrating on still more sophisticated items in addition to conventional metals, machinery and fertilizers. They include software products for banking services and electronic payment systems. Nuclear engineering, tourism and air communication are also rapidly developing sectors. The Hanoi House in Moscow is another project expected to make a significant contribution to relations between the two countries, Mr. Slipenchuck said.

Tran Dung Chun, Deputy Chairman of Vietnamese Business Association in Russia, addressed the development prospects of business relationship between Russian and Vietnam and the issues that are encountered by Vietnamese companies in the Russian Federation.

The formal part of the Forum was ended up with a speech by Valery Platonov, Chairman of CCI Committee for Industrial Development who told about the experience of successful cooperation between Chelyabinsk Tractor Plant, UAZ and KAMAZ car manufacturers, and Vietnam.

To finalize the Forum, Hoang Chung Khai, Deputy Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, answered numerous questions from members of Russian business community.

After the plenary meeting, Russian and Vietnamese businessmen held bilateral discussions of specific trade and economic sectors.