Moscow (VNA) - Vietnam always welcomes and is willing to createfavourable conditions for Russian enterprises to do business and invest in thecountry, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc affirmed when addressing the Vietnam-Russia Business Forum held in Moscow on May 22.

PM Phuc, who is on an official visit to Russia from May 21-23, said thatthe forum aimed to seek better and more effective and timely measures to ensurethat bilateral cooperation matches the Vietnam-Russia sound relations.

He briefed participants on Vietnam’s socio-economic achievements aftermore than 30 years of renewal. Last year, the country’s GDP growth rate made an11-year record high at 7.1 percent, while its import-export turnover reachednearly 500 billion USD. Inflation was curbed under 4 percent and themacro-economy remained stable.

According to the government leader, at present, Vietnam has 28,000foreign-invested projects from 131 countries and territories, with a combinedcapital of over 350 billion USD. Last year, the country welcomed 15.5 millionforeign tourists, a year-on-year rise of 20 percent.

PM Phuc attributed these positive results to improvements in Vietnam’sbusiness environment and its efforts to integrate into the global economy bysigning 11 free trade agreements (FTA) and preparing for the signing of an FTAwith the European Union (EU).

He underlined the positive impacts of the Eurasia Economic Union-VietnamFTA on Vietnam’s trade and investment, thus contributing to a 28.6-percentincrease in its trade turnover with Russia to hit 4.57 billion USD in 2018.

Vietnam is now the 23rd biggest trade partner of Russia and is running20 projects worth 3 billion USD in the country, while Russia has 123 projects(excluding those related to oil and gas) totaling 1 billion USD in Vietnam.

However, the PM said that these results have failed to match withpotential of both nations.

He expressed his hope that two-way trade can reach 10 billion USD by2020 after non-tariff barriers on major commodities are removed and a bilateralpayment channel using local currencies is launched.

For his part, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Maxim Akimov noted thateconomic and trade cooperation between Russia and Vietnam has been built on thefirm foundation of the time-honoured bilateral friendship.

Vietnam has affirmed itself as a key partner of Russia in Southeast Asiaas it accounts for one-third of Russia’s imports from the regional countries,the Deputy PM stated.

He suggested that both sides intensify collaboration in high technology,affirming that Russia is willing to support Vietnam in the fields of digitalgovernment and smart city building, as well as cybersecurity.

Earlier the same day, PM Phuc laid flowers in tribute to late PresidentHo Chi Minh at his statue in Moscow.–VNA