Vietnamese market attracts Russian enterprises
Vietnamese market attracts Russian enterprises
Many Russian firms want to export their products to Vietnam, viewing the country as Russia’s primary export market, beyond the Eastern European bloc, due to its favorable conditions for foreign businesses and the popularity of Russian products among local consumers, heard a seminar in HCMC today.
The Russian Export Center (REC) hosted a two-day event for Russian firms to seek local business partners at the Russian Gastro House Showroom in HCMC, starting today, September 17.
Russia’s database solution providers said that Vietnam is a potential market with many favorable conditions allowing the transfer of technical solutions from Russia, thanks to cultural similarities between the two countries and the large number of Vietnamese who have studied in Russia.
IT-Trader-Soft LCC, a Russian firm providing virtual lectures and surgery simulators for medical students, has worked with five universities and research institutes in the country, including the School of Medicine and Pharmacy under Hanoi National University and subsidiaries of Vietnamese conglomerate VinGroup---VinUni, VinMec and VinSmart.
Besides this, the firm is in negotiations with the School of Medicine and Pharmacy to translate the system of virtual lectures into Vietnamese.
Despite his high hopes for the local market, Vadim Gvozdkov, head of the Product Department at the IT-Trader-Soft LCC, expressed concern over the cumbersome import-export legal procedures.
It takes VinGroup six months to receive licenses from the ministries of Industry and Trade, and Health to temporarily import products from the Russian firm for re-export. The prolonged procedures will affect trade promotion activities between the two firms, said Gvozdkov.
Some Russian companies at the event said they had already studied the local market and lowered their product prices by up to 30% compared with their American rivals.
However, if the Vietnamese government provides financial aid for the health and education sectors to research and access technical solutions from foreign countries, opportunities for Russian firms to approach the local market will increase, they added.
Meanwhile, Russian food and farm suppliers indicated that they enjoy many favorable conditions for tapping the local market. Local consumers have used Russian products for a long time and will welcome items with clear product origins and reasonable prices supplied by Russian firms, with the support of REC.
According to REC, the meeting was aimed at introducing the most popular products made in Russia to supermarket chains, distribution channels and consumers in Vietnam, as well as to boost bilateral trade ties between the two nations.
