Prime Minister Medvedev: Vietnam - Russia relationship still has a lot of potential

During the official visit to Vietnam, on the afternoon of April 7, 2015, Russian Prime Minister Dimitry Medvedev attended and spoke at the program "Meeting with Vietnamese - Russian businesses" held in Ho Chi Minh City. Also attending this event, on the Vietnamese side was Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai.

Russian Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai at the program on the afternoon of April 7.

According to the Organizing Committee, nearly 100 Vietnamese and Russian enterprises in the banking, energy, tourism, education sectors... participated in this meeting. The program is expected to be a place to connect businesses with similar interests in the two countries.

Speaking at the meeting, Mr. Medvedev emphasized that the two countries have a traditional friendly relationship, and there is still a lot of potential for cooperation in the economic field.

Evidence of this is the memorandum of understanding and cooperation between the two countries signed during his official visit to Vietnam. "These are all very specific issues, which open up new prospects in the coming time," said Mr. Medvedev.

He also emphasized that Russia always supports and creates conditions to remove administrative barriers, thereby comprehensively cooperating with Vietnam in many fields. According to the Prime Minister, in the near future, there will be 17 projects with a total investment of about 20 billion USD implemented by the two countries.

Besides, Mr. Medvedev suggested that the two countries need to create more favorable conditions for Vietnamese and Russian businesses to agree on the remaining issues in the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai also warmly welcomed Mr. Medvedev's presence at this event, saying that it shows a real prospect of cooperation and elevates the strategic relationship between the two countries.

The Deputy Prime Minister also affirmed that the Vietnamese Government always attaches importance to, encourages and creates all conditions for Russian investors to cooperate with Vietnam. According to him, up to now, Russia has 104 projects in Vietnam with a total investment capital of nearly 2 billion USD. Meanwhile, Vietnam is also investing in Russia in 17 projects with a capital of about 2.4 billion USD.

Also at this meeting, the leaders of the two countries witnessed the signing ceremony of a memorandum of understanding between the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam (BIDV) and the Bank for Foreign Trade of Russia (VTB), with the content mentioning the implementation of payments in local currencies between the two countries.

In the afternoon of the same day, Mr. Medvedev and Chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City People's Committee Le Hoang Quan visited the Cu Chi tunnels relic site. Here, he was introduced to the formation process as well as the years when this place was used as a fighting base by the army and people of this place.

The Russian Prime Minister surprised many people when he went down to explore the tunnel. He also did not forget to show off his photography skills by taking pictures of all the places he visited. That same evening, Mr. Medvedev boarded a plane to return to Russia, ending his visit to Vietnam.

According to Infonet