Vietnam and Russia agreed to soon begin negotiations on a bilateral Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with the participation of the nations in the Customs Union ( Russia , Belarus and Kazakhstan).
The first meeting of the joint working group for the Vietnam-Russia FTA will be held in Hanoi next month to embark on steps needed for the negotiations.
The consensus on this issue was reached at the 14th meeting of the Vietnam-Russian Inter-government Committee for Economic, Commercial, Scientific and Technological Cooperation, which closed in Moscow Friday.
Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang, and his Russian counterpart, Viktor Khrristenko, co-chaired the meeting.
The two sides focused discussions on ways to step up cooperation in the fields of economy, commerce, science and technology, and raise two-way trade.
Both sides noted with pleasure that economic and trade relations have seen progress since the 12 th meeting. Bilateral trade reached a decade-high record of almost US$1.83 billion in 2009, including $414.89 million from Vietnamese exports.
However, the officials said economic and trade ties remain modest, failing to reach their full potential, and match with the excellent political relations, traditional friendship and strategic partnership between the two countries.
Vietnam affirmed its desire to cooperate closely and effectively with Russia in energy, with top priority given to oil and gas, and construction of power plants and coal mining.
Other fields that need to receive a boost include mechanical engineering, automobile assembly, trade, finance, banking, education, training, agriculture, science, technology, telecoms, aviation, sports, culture, tourism and space research.
Both Hoang and Khrristenko affirmed the two governments’ support for companies to explore business and investment opportunities in each other’s markets.
The two sides agreed to hold the next meeting in Vietnam in 2011.
