HO CHI MINH, September 8. /TASS/. The trade turnover between Russia and Vietnam is still very poor despite the fact that it has been almost a year since the free trade zone agreement between Vietnam and the European Economic Union (EAEU) came into force, Russia’s First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov said at the meeting of the bilateral intergovernmental commission on economic, scientific and technical cooperation on Friday.

"Much is said about the free trade zone (agreement) and the advantages and opportunities it offers to expand our ties but in reality the situation is the same as it was before the agreement. It is necessary for both sides to assume efforts to implement the agreement," he said.

According to Shuvalov, "the trade turnover (between Russia and Vietnam - TASS) is substandard." "How come we have nothing to offer to each other? It is essential to support our friendship with particular proposals, and there is a good background and shared desire for this at the highest level," he noted.

Experts expect the enactment of the free trade zone agreement between Vietnam and the EAEU to accelerate the growth of Russian-Vietnamese trade and help attain the targeted trade turnover level of $10 bln by 2020. Certain upbeat tendencies have emerged in the bilateral trade and economic cooperation as the amount of mutual trade between Moscow and Hanoi reached $2.7 bln in 2016, a 23% increase compared with 2015. In the first seven months of 2017, trade turnover numbers went up 27% to $2 bln, though Shuvalov said those figures are still far from reflecting the potential of both sides. "Given our relations, it should be at a totally different level," he pointed out.