Vietnam, Russia sign Inter-Governmental Committee’s documents

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai and his Russian counterpart Igor Shuvalov witnessed the signing of the minutes and a statement on the establishment of a joint high-level working group to enhance prioritized cooperation projects between the two nations.

The two Co-Chairmen also agreed that the next session will be held in Hanoi in the second half of 2013.

Economic and trade cooperation have grown steadily, with two-way trade turnover in 2012 estimated at US$3 billion and the figure is predicted to hit US$7 billion by 2015.

They agreed upon the roadmap of the Vietnam-Russian joint action plan on economic, trade and investment until 2015, the establishment of the high-level joint working group led by Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade and Russian Economic Development Minister to speed up joint cooperation projects.

The two sides also agreed to promote cooperation between the two countries’ localities, especially between Vietnamese ones and Russian far-eastern region, Ulyanov province and St. Petersburg.

They discussed measures to strengthen ties in the fields of industry, agriculture, tourism, finance-banking, health care, education, telecommunications, science-technology and energy.

Shuvalov affirmed that the Customs Union of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus will negotiate with Vietnam in early 2013 in order to sign an agreement in establishing a quadripartite FTA.

He added that Russia is keen to build a nuclear power plant in Vietnam with the highest quality and strongly supports the direct cooperation between the two countries’ localities, as well as encouraging Vietnamese businesses to invest in Russia.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev will pay an official visit to Vietnam in early November to further strengthen the comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, he noted.

During its stay in Russia, the Vietnamese delegation also visited two titanium plants of AVISMA company in Sverdlov province.