VINACHEM

MOSCOW — Viet Nam and the member nations of the Customs Union (Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan) have agreed to begin negotiations on a bilateral free trade agreement.

The first meeting of the joint working group for the Viet Nam-Russia FTA will be held in Ha Noi next month.

Consensus on the issue was reached at the 14th meeting of the Viet Nam-Russia Inter-government Committee for Economic, Commercial, Scientific and Technological Co-operation, which convened in Moscow on Tuesday and ended yesterday.

Minister of Industry and Trade Vu Huy Hoang and his Russian counterpart Viktor Khrristenko co-chaired the meeting.

The two sides focused on ways to step up co-operation on the economy, commerce, science and technology and trade.

Both sides noted that economic and trade relations had seen significant progress since the 12th meeting. Bilateral trade reached a decade-high of almost US$1.83 billion in 2009, which included $415 million in Vietnamese exports.

However, the officials said economic and trade ties remained modest.

The Vietnamese delegation affirmed its desire to co-operate more closely with Russia on energy, with top priority being given to oil and gas and construction of power plants and coal mining.

Other fields that need to receive a boost include mechanical engineering, automobile assembly, trade, finance, banking, education, training, agriculture, science, technology, telecoms, aviation, sports, culture, tourism and space research.

Both Hoang and Khrristenko affirmed the two governments' support for companies wishing to explore business and investment opportunities.

(Source: VNS)