Viet Nam and Russia reached consensus on various measures to step up bilateral ties during the 21st session of the Viet Nam-Russia Inter-Governmental Committee for Economic-Commercial and Scientific-Technological Cooperation in Moscow on Monday.

They agreed to implement high-level agreements reached during the official visit to Russia by General Secretary of the Communist Party of Viet Nam Central Committee Nguyen Phu Trong last September.

Both sides said that economic, trade and investment ties between Viet Nam and Russia had developed with the effective realisation of a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union, of which Russia is a member.

Two-way trade reached US$3.55 billion in 2017, up 31 per cent year-on-year, while turnover stood at $3.4 billion in the first nine months of this year, up 36.8 percent year-on-year.

Investment co-operation had also been expanded as seen through Viet Nam’s big investment projects in Russia.

They said the two countries held a lot of potential for collaboration, particularly in areas of strength like energy, agriculture, industry, transport, science-technology and education-training.

Deputy Prime Minister Trinh Dinh Dung and his Russian counterpart Maksim Akimov, who co-chaired the meeting, discussed measures to foster bilateral ties during the Fourth Industrial Revolution, especially in trade-investment, information-technology, transport infrastructure, finance-banking, energy, science and education-training.

They said they would consider lifting non-tariff barriers in import-export, particularly in agriculture and fisheries, aiming to raise bilateral trade to $10 billion in 2020.

The two sides also compared notes on measures to enhance transactions using domestic currencies.

In the sphere of energy, they agreed to create more favourable conditions for oil and gas projects, while expanding collaboration in other fields like liquefied natural gas (LNG) and electricity.

They also looked into promising transport infrastructure co-operation projects, especially railways in Viet Nam.

At the end of the session, the two Deputy PMs witnessed the signing of co-operation agreements between Vietnamese and Russian businesses and organisations in the fields of banking, telecommunications and education-training.

The 22nd session of the committee is scheduled to be held in Viet Nam in 2019.

The Deputy PMs told the press that the meeting was a success, further explaining that they had discussed major co-operation areas in a candid, open, practical and comprehensive manner. — VNS