Russia–Vietnam Economic Relations: State of the Art and Development Prospects

Introduction. The long-living and eventful Russia-Vietnam economic relations date back to the Council of Mutual Economic Assistance. Nowadays the continued deepening of these ties is occurring as part Eurasian integration. Goals. The article seeks to reveal further development prospects for bilateral relations and attempts an insight into the latter’s state of the art. Materials and methods. The work examines data from the UN Comtrade, Bank of Russia, Rosstat, Ministry of Internal Affairs, and those contained in Russian Statistical Yearbooks. Results. The recent years have witnessed a growing dynamics in trade cooperation between Russia and Vietnam. The paper notes it is trade in services plays a significant role in the interstate economic relations. The analysis of investment cooperation reveals an imbalance in investment flows in favor of Vietnam. The FDIs in oil production and trade have been identified as key investment endeavors. As for migration, Vietnam is defined as a donor country, and our analysis of migration flows shows the Russian Federation is simply not considered as a preferred destination for Vietnamese migrants. The article also pays attention to the change in the structure of Vietnam-to-Russia migration flow and articulates some underlying reasons. Conclusions. Despite the intensification of trade relations, none of the countries has implemented its export potential to the full. As for FDI cooperation, textile industry, wind power and IT sector stand out as promising areas. Another area for the development of bilateral relations is educational migration, since there is definitely still room for Russia to increase its attractiveness among Vietnamese youth.

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