At a meeting with Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee Le Thanh Hai on February 23, Mr Resin said that the project will need around 4,000 workers and is expected to be completed after three years of construction.

These trade centres will help increase import-export turnover between the countries, he said, adding that the Moscow authorities will also introduce Russia’s prestigious groups, institutes and consultants for HCM City to build its metro routes in the coming time.

Secretary Hai called on Russian investors to get involved in metro projects in HCM City.

In another move, Vietnam’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Hoang Tuan Anh and Russia’s Culture Minister Alexander Alexeevich Avdeyev signed a co-operation programme in Hanoi on February 23 to strengthen collaboration in art and culture from 2010 to 2012.

Under the programme, Vietnam and Russia will increase exchanges of information regarding national and international cultural activities taking place in both countries including celebrating Russian culture in Vietnam this year and a similar event honouring Vietnamese culture in Russia in 2011. Both sides will facilitate direct cooperation between libraries, museums, archive facilities, art educating agencies, theatres, etc. of both nations in order to promote the study, restoration, preservation and promotion of cultural heritages.

Vietnam and Russia will exchange more regularly experts in music, theatre, circus and other traditional forms of art.

According to Russian Minister of Culture Alexander Alexeevich Avdeyev, the Russian culture week in Vietnam scheduled to take place in November this year in Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City will feature a myriad of cultural activities including concerts, photo exhibitions and film screenings. Russia will dispatch artists for many important events Vietnam is set to organise this year, especially the 1,000 th birthday of Thang Long-Hanoi capital.

On the same day, the visiting Russian Minister had a meeting with Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung who confirms the great importance that Vietnam attaches to fortifying and developing cultural cooperation with Russia.