Fruit is one of the best export products from Viet Nam  to Russian market. — Photo luoixopvk.com

HCM CITY (Biz Hub) — Russia has large demand for consumer goods, farm produce, light industrial products, handicrafts, and construction ceramics, making it a promising market for Vietnamese firms, a seminar heard in HCM City yesterday.

Viet Nam and Russia enjoy good relations in many areas, including trade, investment, and tourism, Ho Xuan Lam, deputy director of the Investment and Trade Promotion Centre of HCM City (ITPC), which organised the seminar together with the ITL Corporation, said.

Trade between them has risen considerably in recent years, reaching nearly US$4 billion last year and $2 billion in the first nine months of this year, he said.

Nikolay Kapustkin, deputy chief representative of the Russia Trade Office in Viet Nam, said despite the economic sanctions by the US and EU, the Russian economy remains stable.

Viet Nam and the Customs Union of Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan are in the process of negotiating a free trade agreement.

Once the FTA is signed, it is expected to open up great opportunities to enhance bilateral investment and trade ties, Kapustkin said.

With a population of more than143 million, Russia is a potentially lucrative market for Vietnamese products, he said.

He urged Vietnamese firms to focus on improving the quality of products they export to Russia.

To increase exports to the market, they must be more proactive in studying it and undertaking promotional activities, including taking part in trade fairs there, he said.

Russian firms are looking to import and distribute motorbikes, electricity metres, decorative lights, sunflower oil, materials used in wood processing, excavators, drillers, and other items, he said.

Nguyen Chi Tam, former head of the Ministry of Industry and Trade's European Market Department, said payment issues and the language barrier are among difficulties Vietnamese firms face when exporting to Russia. — VNS