The event was attended by representatives of ministries, trade associations, businesses, and research agencies of both countries.
According to Vietnamese commercial counsellor Duong Hoang Minh, bilateral trade between Vietnam and Russia reached 7.1 billion USD in 2021 but dropped to 3.6 billion USD in 2022 due to the adverse impacts of Western sanctions on Russia.
In the first four months of 2023, the value was slightly more than 1 billion USD, down 36.4% from the previous year.
Minh suggested that in order to boost Vietnam-Russia trade, both countries’ enterprises need to effectively capitalise on the advantages and opportunities to increase investment and goods manufacturing in the other’s market.
For Russian enterprises, they need to take advantage of the trade pact between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union in order to step up the production of goods of Russia’s strengths for export to other markets that have trade agreements with Vietnam, said Minh.
In the meantime, Vietnamese businesses should increase their investment in Russia in the fields of agricultural processing, food, seafood, garments and timber.
Nikita Kondratiev from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development stated that the Russian side is working to abolish tariff and non-tariff barriers to facilitate trade with Vietnamese partners.
He suggested that Vietnam should increase the export of electronics, phones, computers, TVs, car parts, furniture, garments, and footwear to Russia.
Russia’s trade representative in Vietnam Vyacheslav Kharinov called on the two countries to encourage and support the initiatives that promote Vietnam-Russia cooperation, while representatives of Vietnamese enterprises underlined the need to diversify the banking system to deal with payment difficulties.
Concluding the conference, Vietnamese Ambassador to Russia Dang Minh Khoi affirmed that the Embassy is willing to work with both countries’ functional agencies and enterprises to address the challenges and carry out initiatives to further enhance the Vietnam-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership.
