Ho Chi Minh city - St. Peterburg sea route opens
Ha Noi, Feb. 27 (VNA) -- The Vietnamese cargo vessel, "Phuong Dong-3", arrived in St Petersburg, Russia, on Feb. 22, opening the Ho Chi Minh City-St Petersburg route.
Owned by the Viet Nam Sea Transport and Chartering Company (VITRANSCHART), Phuong Dong-3 sailed almost 10,000 nautical miles in 43 days before anchoring at Russia's northwestern port.
St Petersburg port Director Gennadi Mitenev spoke highly of the crew's high sense of responsibility, qualification and braveness. He pledged enthusiastic help to and cooperation with the Vietnamese sailors to ensure high efficiency in terms of safety, punctuality and thrift.
St Petersburg Deputy Mayor Iuri Antonov welcomed the arrival of Phuong Dong-3 - linking the sister-cities - Ho Chi Minh and St Petersburg - just ahead of the visit to Viet Nam by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
He described the opening of the route as a practical move to strengthen economic and commercial ties between the two cities in particular and the two countries in general.
Antonov said the St Petersburg administration would creat favourable condition for all maritime and commercial activities carried out by Vietnamese businesses. He hoped that Russian business people would boost cooperation with their Vietnamese partners to achieve high trading efficiency.
The 15,000-tonne ship carried rubber, rice, noodles, tea, coffee and other agricultural produce to Russia and will return with trucks, construction steel, machinery and chemical fertilizer.
With four 15,000-tonne VITRASCHART ships scheduled to sailing the route, it is expected that at least one Vietnamese cargo vessel will reach St Petersburg every month in the near future.--VNA
