Russia gives “green light” to investment from Vietnam

The Voice of Russia (on 5th August night) revealed that Russia ranked third in the world in terms of foreign investment. In 2013 only, Russia attracted foreign direct investment of more than 94 billion USD.

Experts said that investment performance in Russia may be 1.5-2 times higher than similar projects in many other countries. Thus, majority of foreign investors have negative attitude towards the U.S and EU’s economic sanctions against Russia.

Concurrently, the applied sanctions provide more opportunities for investors from other countries including Vietnam not to follow the directives of the United States.

Although Vietnam’s investment into Russia is not yet on high level, Russia ranks third in the list of 68 largest countries attracting investment from Vietnam, only behind Laos and Cambodia.

According to Mr. Pavel Kochkin, advisor from the Department of Asian and African countries under the Ministry of Economic Development of Russian Federation, "Vietnamese investors are very interested in Russian market. In mid-2013, 16 projects were implemented in Russia with the participation of Vietnam, and 40 companies were invested by Vietnam. Those companies are members of the Association of Vietnamese enterprises in Russia”.

The largest investment projects with the participation of Vietnam are two joint ventures in the oil and gas industry.

Firstly, it should mention "Rusvietpetro" company which operates in the Northern European of the Russian Federation. So far, the company's specialists have exploited the first few million tons of oil on the permanent frozen area. In the near future, the volume of oil produced at the company will be compared to the production of Vietsovpetro, the leading joint-venture company in the oil and gas industry of Vietnam.

Another big investment project worth US0 million is "Hanoi-Moscow" cultural, commercial and hotel center. Construction work has been completed, the hotel begins receiving the first customers, and finishing work is in the final stage.

Mr. Kochkin said: "These projects clearly show that Russia has created the most favorable conditions for the activities of Vietnamese investors. The success of these projects has drawn attention of Vietnamese enterprises to the Russian market. They are particularly interested in such areas as trade, restaurant, clothing, footwear, agricultural products, and even electronic application".

Vietnamese investors also want to develop partnerships with the coal mining and transportation companies of Russia, to form woodwork and fishing clusters in Primorsky region of the Russian Federation. According to Vietnam's initiative, the two sides are discussing the project for development of technology to produce rubberized fabric, using the silk of Vietnam.

As agreed by the Russian and Vietnamese experts, Vietnam’s investment into Russia and Russia’s investment into Vietnam will continue increase.