Vietnam, Russia Eye National Currencies in Bilateral Trade

Vietnam and Russia plan to use their national currencies in bilateral trade and investment relations.


                         Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov. Photo: Reuters

Vietnamese and Russian authorities have expressed their intention to use national currencies in bilateral trade and investment, Russia’s First Vice Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov was quoted by Sputnik as saying.
“We would like to significantly advance on the use of only national currencies in our trade relations without the use of third-party currencies. This will help us to support bilateral projects, including investment,” Shuvalov noted at an intergovernmental commission session.

The planned usage of national currencies comes at a time when the two countries increase cooperation in bank servicing, financial clearing of projects.

During the session, the two sides also discussed the free trade agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union, comprising Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, scheduled to take effect on October 5.

Under the agreement, both parties must remove all major trade barriers in their markets to imports from other signatory states.

Data of the General Department of Vietnam Customs showed that trade between Vietnam and Russia reached $1.77 billion in the first eight months of this year, soared 25.24% against the same period of 2015. Vietnam earned a trade surplus of $315.8 million with Russia.

Tuan Minh / BizLIVE