Russia is a potential and lucrative market for Vietnam’s exports and local businesses should focus on the foreign country’s massive demand for consumer products, a conference June 18 in Ho Chi Minh City was told.
Phan The Rue, former deputy trade minister, told the meeting on doing trade with Russia that the country with a population of 144 million relies mainly on imports.
However, in recent years, Vietnam had virtually ignored that market with its exports valued at around US$400 million in 2006 against Russia’s total foreign trade of some US$367 billion, Rue said.
Several Vietnamese-made items like food, handicrafts and coffee were being imported to Russia through third country, which caused a loss of Vietnamese brand names, he said, stressing Russia a gateway to Eastern Europe.
Meanwhile, Nguyen Ba Anh, chairman of the Vietnam Business Association in Russia, blamed the lack of information about the Russian market for small amount of Vietnamese exports to that country, adding that businesses and trade promotion agencies should collaborate to do market researches on Russia.
“It is the right time to crank up exports to Russia since its government is rolling out the red carpet to Vietnamese businesses,” Anh said.
He urged Vietnamese firms to cooperate with Vietnamese expatriate businesspeople in Russia for trade promotion and market expansion, convincing them not to worry about payments from Russia due to the country’s developed banking system.
Anh proposed the Vietnamese government follow the example of other countries support its exporters by building bonded warehouses in Russia.
However, he worried that a ban slapped recently by the Russian government on foreign retailers may impact Vietnamese exports.
Two-way trade between Vietnam and Russia was estimated at US$1.02 billion in 2005, up 15 per cent over 2004, including US$252 million worth of Vietnam’s exports and US$768 million worth of imports, resulting in trade deficit of US$516 million.
Vietnam-Russia bilateral trade is expected to reach 2-3 billion in 2010, up 1.8-2.7 times against 2005. (Thanh Nien Daily)
Vietnamese
