(VOVworld) – Since a free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) was signed, many businesses in Ho Chi Minh City have stepped up their investment in Russia.  As a potential market, the investment flow is likely to be full of promise.

PM Nguyen Tan Dung and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev at the signing ceremony (Photo: nhandan.org.vn)

This September, Russia will open a light industrial zone in Moscow to welcome Vietnamese enterprises, especially those from Ho Chi Minh City.

The six main areas that Russia is calling for Vietnam’s investment in the park are garments and textiles, wood processing, aquaculture, telecommunications, electronic components, and construction.

Duong Ngoc Minh, President of the Hung Vuong Joint Stock Company who has more than a decade of experience of doing business in Russia, spoke highly of this market’s potential.

Minh noted that his company aims to develop logistic services to serve Vietnamese exporters and creates links with local supermarkets.

Hung Vuong will also work with Russian seafood processors to move the commodities from Russia to Vietnam for processing for re-export to third countries.

Minh says his company “will set up a system of depots in the industrial zone for Vietnamese exporters to Russia. We hope that next year we will also build a cold storage facility with a capacity of 15,000 tons while the depots for other types of products will cover 50,000 square meters.”

Pham Phu Cuong, deputy director general of the Vietnam National Textile and Garment Group (Vinatex), said there are about 40,000 Vietnamese workers in Russia, most of whom were in Moscow.

Cuong who is also the Chairman and Director General of Nha Be Garment Corporation comments: “Vietnamese garment companies have pledged to invest in trading and the construction of workshops. Once the industrial zone is completed, we will likely be able to generate stable jobs for more than 10,000 workers there. We will also build accommodation, workshops, and even kindergartens to help Vietnamese workers live in the best possible conditions.”

Vietnam’s wooden fine art products (Photo: VNA)

Vietnam’s timber products and fine art articles are other items also much sought after by Russians.

Vo Truong Thanh, chairman of the Truong Thanh Timber Processing Company, says: “we’re doing business in Russia which is abundant in wood materials, especially oak. If we have an affiliate in Russia, we’ll send workers and there will be more opportunities for success. I expect this to be an investment project.”

If Vietnamese enterprises invest in Russia, they will enjoy many advantages in favorable methods of payment between the two nations, the available human resource of Vietnamese people living in Russia, the zone’s location, about 50 km from Moscow, and other preferential treatment policies.

Electronic components are ones of six main areas that Russia is calling for Vietnam’s investment. (Photo: vietbao.ru)

Nguyen Thi Hong, deputy chairwoman of Ho Chi Minh City’s People’s Committee, said: “the city has assigned the municipal department of industry and trade to check on which businesses have been investing in Russia and which ones have plans to do so. We already have a list of companies doing business in Russia.”

The establishment of a light industrial zone in Moscow is the first step to open new prospects for investment and trade development between the two nations.