Vietnam Company from Russia: 2026 Setup and FTA Guide

Russia and Vietnam traded USD 4.77 billion in 2025, and the relationship rests on a trade agreement that has been in force for a decade.

The Free Trade Agreement between Vietnam and the Eurasian Economic Union was signed on 29 May 2015 and took effect on 5 October 2016. Trade has grown by an average of 10.8% a year since.

What has changed more recently is the Russian side. The rules on moving capital out were loosened in December 2025 and again in July 2026, and Vietnam sits on the favourable side of both changes.

USD 4.77bntwo way trade in 2025, growing 10.8 percent a year since the agreement

RUB 30minvestable in one foreign company without individual central bank approval

8 Dec 2025the date currency transfer limits were lifted for friendly countries

The corridor, and the reversal inside it

Read those last two rows together, because the result is counterintuitive and rarely mentioned.

• Vietnam has invested more in Russia than Russia has in Vietnam, USD 1.64 billion against USD 996 million.
• It has done so through 18 projects rather than 213, so the Vietnamese positions are far larger individually.
• Russian investment in Vietnam is broad and small, which is what a corridor of many entrepreneurs rather than a few state scale projects looks like.
• The early 2026 dip is worth watching rather than dismissing, at 5.1% below the prior year.

What the agreement actually gives you

• Import duties are reduced or removed on most key positions traded between the bloc and Vietnam.
• Rules of origin require goods to be wholly obtained in a signatory country, or to have undergone processing that changes the tariff classification, with non originating materials not exceeding 10% of the final product's value.
• The agreement is about goods, so it changes the economics of trading rather than the rules on owning a company.
• Ownership rights come from Vietnam's other commitments, and the EAEU agreement does not lift sector ceilings the way the CPTPP does in specific cases.

That last distinction matters and is often blurred. The agreement helps what you sell, not what you may own.

What Vietnam asks of you

• Full foreign ownership is available in most sectors, and the negative list is about activities rather than nationality.
• A legal representative must reside in Vietnam.
• Online filing needs a Vietnamese electronic identity, which requires a residence card for a foreign national.
• Since 31 March 2026 you may incorporate first and obtain the investment certificate within twelve months.

The mechanics are in how to register a company in Vietnam.

The Russian side, as it now stands

1. 1
   Is the total into this one company under RUB 30 million?Counted cumulatively across all payments to the same foreign company since 1 April 2024
2. 2
   If yes, no individual Bank of Russia approval is neededThe threshold rose from RUB 15 million on 1 July 2026, in rubles or foreign currency
3. 3
   Currency transfer limits were lifted on 8 December 2025For Russian citizens and citizens of friendly countries, which includes this corridor
4. 4
   Banking is still a commercial decisionEach institution decides whether to process the payment, whatever the rules permit

• The investment threshold is cumulative, counting every payment to the same foreign company since 1 April 2024, not per transaction and not per year.
• It rose from RUB 15 million to RUB 30 million on 1 July 2026.
• Payment may be in rubles or in foreign currency.
• The December 2025 measure removed transfer limits for Russian citizens and citizens of friendly countries, a category that covers this route.
• Restrictions that remained applied to non residents and to legal entities from unfriendly states, which is a different situation from the one on this page.

Where the two thresholds meet

This is the connection worth making, and it is not made anywhere else.

• Vietnam's investor visa reaches the residence card tier at VND 3 billion of registered capital, which is the DT3 level.
• The Russian approval free ceiling of RUB 30 million is comfortably above that figure at ordinary exchange rates, though rates move and the comparison should be checked on the day.
• So a Russian founder can normally fund a Vietnamese company at the residence card level without needing individual Bank of Russia approval.
• That matters because the residence card unlocks the electronic identity, which is what makes the founder able to act as the company's own legal representative.

The chain from capital to residence card to filing access is set out in setting up in Vietnam as a non-resident.

What Russian founders build in Vietnam

Vietnam's exports to Russia in the period reported were led by textiles at USD 504 million, coffee at USD 462.3 million and seafood at USD 214.5 million. Those are the goods a trading entity would handle.

Solving the resident representative question

Every route into Vietnam meets this requirement, and the Russian answer has one advantage over most.

• Send someone. The Russian community in Vietnam is long established, particularly in the coastal cities, so recruiting a Russian speaking resident is more realistic here than on most origins.
• Hire locally. A Vietnamese resident can hold the role, and the charter should divide the powers precisely, because an undefined legal representative can bind the company.
• Relocate a founder. The registered capital available without individual central bank approval is comfortably above the investor visa tier that carries a residence card.
• Use a professional nominee. Common, priced accordingly, and it concentrates authority in a service provider rather than in the group.

The third option is the one this corridor supports better than most, because the Russian and Vietnamese thresholds happen to line up in the founder's favour.

Where it goes wrong

• Treating the cumulative threshold as annual, and exceeding it across several contributions to the same company.
• Assuming the trade agreement affects ownership rights, when it governs goods.
• Underestimating correspondent banking time, which is the practical constraint even where the rules permit the transfer.
• Starting the Vietnamese ninety day capital clock before the transfer route has been tested with a small payment.
• Assuming the Belarusian position is the same, when the two jurisdictions have separate banking realities despite sharing the union.

The bottom line

This is one of the better supported routes on this list. There is a decade old trade agreement, USD 4.77 billion of annual trade, and a Russian regulatory position that has moved toward permitting rather than restricting outbound investment.

The remaining friction is banking rather than law. Rules that permit a transfer do not oblige any institution to process it, and that is where the timetable is decided.

Test the payment route before you incorporate, keep the cumulative threshold in view rather than the per payment one, and set the charter capital where it does the most work, which is at or above the level that produces a residence card. Those three decisions settle most of the project.