RF, Vietnam PMs to discuss energy, banking projects Tue.

MOSCOW, December 15 (Itar-Tass) - The Prime Ministers of the Russian
Federation (RF) and Vietnam, Vladimir Putin and Nguyen Tan Dung, are to
hold talks here on Tuesday "to discuss matters of current importance
concerning bilateral cooperation in the fields of politics, trade,
economics, energy, military-technical cooperation, science, education, and
culture," an RF government press service official has announced.
It is expected that "as a result of the (upcoming) meeting the sides
will sign a number of bilateral documents, including an agreement on
strategic partnership between Gazprom and the Petrovietnam oil and gas
corporation, the press service official specified.
Besides, the INTER RAO UES intends to sign a memorandum with
Petrovietnam in the field of electric power while a VTB will sign a
memorandum on the establishment of an investment fund with Vietnam's Bank
for Investment and Development.
The RF government official pointed out, "Russo-Vietnamese trade and
economic contacts develop successfully on the whole". Thus, "despite the
world's financial and economic downturn, bilateral trade turnover
continuously grows: over the first nine months of 2009 it increased by 4.1
percent to run at $1,160 million". "Stronger bilateral cooperation is
being also promoted by joint measures to refine credit-and-financial
mechanisms," the government official emphasized. In particular, the joint
Vietnamese- Russian Bank (VRB) began to operate in November 2006; a VRB
representative office opened in Hanoi in October 2008, and a subsidiary
branch is now preparing to open in Moscow.
Russia and Vietnam "implement joint projects in such branches as the
development of deposits of economic minerals, metallurgy,
telecommunications, machine building, the agri-industrial sector,
transport, communications, and financial-and-banking sphere.
Military-technical cooperation gains in scope as well," the source pointed
out.
"Energy cooperation plays a tangible role in Russo-Vietnamese
relations", the source said. Thus, the Vietsovpetro joint-venture (JV)
enterprise, which has been operating since1981, accounts for over a half
of the entire amount of oil produced in Vietnam. "The net profit of the
Russian participant in the JV -- the Zarubezhneft Company -- amounted to
about $7,000 million over the period from 1996 to 2008," the RF government
press service official said.
The government official recalled, "In accordance with the
understandings reached at top level, the Vietsovpetro will transform into
a limited liability company on January 1, 2011 (the equity share of
Zarubezhneft will be 49 percent and that of PetroVietnam -- 51 percent).
The Russian company Silovyye Mashiny (Power Machines) develop also
operates on the dynamically developing market of electric power. The
hydropower station Sesan-3 (with a power of 274 megawatts) was built with
its assistance. Work has been completed on the whole on the Avuong HPS
(210 mgwt) and Buonkuop (280 mgwt/; the supply of equipment is being
continued for the Pleikrong HPS (110 mgwt) while start-up and adjustment
operations are under way at the Wongby thermal and electric power plant
(300 mgwt), the RF government official pointed out.
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