Minh Duc
Russia's Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (L) and his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung are seen at the Government Office in Hanoi yesterday. Medvedev is in Hanoi on a visit to Vietnam from April 5 to 7 - PHOTO: REUTERS
The two government leaders requested the highest safety and security requirements be applied to Ninh Thuan 1 nuclear power station in the central coast province.
Vietnam originally wanted the first reactor with a designed capacity of 1,000 MW to come online by 2020. However, PM Dung told a review conference of Vietnam National Oil and Gas Group early last year that construction work might be delayed until 2020.
In on April 6’s talks in Hanoi, the two prime ministers agreed to work towards the implementation of the project as committed by the two sides.
Rosatom, the Russian state nuclear energy corporation that will build Ninh Thuan 1, unveiled a plan late last year to look for Vietnamese subcontractors to execute the project.
Rosatom, the parent company of ASE as the main contractor of the project, sent the feasibility study for the project to Vietnam Electricity Group (EVN) as the project owner last year before the latter forwarded it to Vietnam Agency for Radiation and Nuclear Safety for appraisal and approval.
Also in 2014, ASE Company and Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute (Vinatom) clinched a cooperation agreement on developing a technology center for nuclear research.
As part of the agreement, Vinatom suggested three locations – Dalat, Dong Nai and Ninh Thuan – for construction of a nuclear power plant and auxiliary facilities. The total cost for these facilities is put at US$500 million with funding from Russian partners.
According to the Prime Minister’s Decision 906/2010/TTg, Vietnam will have 13 nuclear reactors by 2030.
At the meeting in Hanoi on April 6, the government leaders of Vietnam and Russia reviewed the implementation of key cooperation projects in fields such as investment, trade, oil and gas, and military.
They asked ministries and agencies to seek solutions to cope with the fall in bilateral trade revenue between the two countries in recent times, according to a statement released by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Two-way trade reached US$2.7 billion in 2013 and US$2.55 billion in the following year, falling 7.6%. In the first two months of 2015, the figure stood at only US$191 million, including US$133 million of Vietnam’s exports to Russia.
Both countries are facing obstacles in trade cooperation such as controls on Vietnamese goods quality and export-import payments, the ministry said.
Therefore, the two leaders suggested accelerating the official signing of the free trade agreement (FTA) between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union in the first half of this year.
They discussed the possibility of using the currencies of the two countries for transactions between Russian and Vietnamese enterprises in order to boost bilateral trade to US$10 billion by 2020.
Besides, bilateral investment is still far below the two nations’ potential. The high-level joint working group on the Vietnam-Russia prioritized investment projects headed by the two ministers of industry and trade should play a crucial role in identifying investment areas and effectively implement selected projects.
Russia currently ranks 17th among 101 countries and territories investing in Vietnam with 106 projects worth nearly US$2 billion. Meanwhile, Vietnamese enterprises have invested in 19 projects valued at US$2.47 billion in Russia.
PM Dung and his Russian counterpart hailed ministries and relevant agencies for bolstering cooperation in oil and gas, nuclear energy, mining and agriculture.
They lauded the cooperation in defense and security. Both sides also agreed to work out a plan to set up seafood and wood processing joint venture firms in the Far East region.
Regarding East Sea issues, they agreed that all disputes should be settled by peaceful means in line with international law, especially the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea (DOC), and that the parties concerned should work towards forming a Code of Conduct in the East Sea (COC).
After their talks, the two PMs witnessed the signing of cooperation documents on energy, investment, banking and transport.
Đăng ký: VietNam News
