KEY CONCLUSIONS
Russian government
is striving to create a comfortable environment for life and business in the
Far East
“Our five-year work resulted in over 240 operations
up and running and over 600 billion roubles of private investment attracted. I
must say that our multiplier exceeds 10, which means we attract 10 roubles of
private investment per one rouble from the budget. We have created 39 thousand
jobs. Over the last years, our growth rate is almost twice as high as average
in Russia. In 2014–2018, 33% of the country’s direct foreign investment was in
the Far East. We started with 2%, and now we are at 33%. It is a growth of
16%,” Yury Trutnev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and
Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District.
“When we say ‘pivot East’, the most important part
for us is that it is about Russia. It is the country’s development, the
development of Russia’s most important region – the Far East, attracting
foreign partners to the region that are the most important objectives. This
pivot East is not happening for geopolitical, but for practical reasons,”
Timofei Bordachev, Director, Centre for Comprehensive European and
International Studies, National Research University Higher School of Economics;
Programme Director, The Valdai Discussion Club.
“Compared to five years ago, the Far East is
actively developing through the efforts of the Russian government. However,
this region needs even more attention,” Michael Tay, Ambassador Extraordinary
and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Singapore to the Russian Federation
(2002–2008); Founder, Director, Foundation for the Arts and Social Enterprise.
Russia’s
cooperation with APR countries has great potential
“The objective of Russia’s policy in the East is
helping regional development and enhancing diplomatic and economic ties in the
Asia Pacific. Russia has done a lot for it and achieved significant progress
and success,” Lee Jae-Young, President, Korea Institute for International
Economic Policy (KIEP).
“The growth rates of export from China to Russia
are staggering. In certain regions they have shown an increment of 3–4 times.
<…> For many years, China has been the main trade partner of the Russian
Far East and the largest source of foreign investment in the region. In the first
six months of 2019, the trade volume between the Far Eastern Federal District
and China approached USD 5 billion, which means a growth of 16% year-over-year.
Russian export to China reached almost USD 4 billion, and this number is on the
rise,” Fan Weiguo, Director, Asia-Europe Bureau at the Xinhua News Agency.
“Our analysis has shown that the trade and economic
ties between India, Russia and China have a great unused potential. According
to our calculations, Russia could have increased its trade volumes with China
by at least 25% and by 17% with India. Therefore, we can sum it up by saying
that Russia’s pivot towards India and China is an absolutely realistic step
that we are witnessing now. But its outlook is hindered by the unused potential
and the fact that possible trade volumes are not achieved,” Apurva Sanghi,
Acting Country Director for the Russian Federation, The World Bank Group.
The global role of
Asia Pacific is growing
“Asia Pacific keeps enforcing its role in the
world. The GDP of this region is 42.6% of the global GDP and its share of the
global trade is 53%. We should mention a strong economic and trade alignment, a
change in the economic structure, development of new technologies – all of it
offers Asian countries new cooperation opportunities for their prosperity,” To
Anh Dung, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Socialist Republic of
Vietnam.
PROBLEMS
Cooperation faces
political and economic constraints
“They have been persuading us that we need to be
friends with everybody, work with everybody and trade with everybody. We have
taken into this paradigm, but it seems like our western partners do not believe
in it anymore. We need to understand
that cooperation faces constraints both in the West and in the East. Of course,
we need to strive to make them go away and we are doing it, but the Far East
has robust resources that will keep it going,” Yury Trutnev, Deputy Prime
Minister of the Russian Federation and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to
the Far Eastern Federal District.
“Our session had many discussions about ways to
improve the investment climate in the Far East. As for disadvantages,
previously I have seen a significant foreign presence, and now it is smaller. I
think we need to focus on attracting them to the next Forum,” Michael Tay,
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Singapore to
the Russian Federation (2002–2008); Founder, Director, Foundation for the Arts
and Social Enterprise.
“Main indices of the region’s economic development
do not yet reflect its stability and sustainability driven by strengthened
internal potential. The constraint lies in the main economic indices of the Far
East development to a large degree depending on external factors. Some of them
are exaggerated if we take into account the basic weaknesses of the Far East.
<…> The Far East as a market is not attractive yet if we take into
account its size, demographic trends and global interdependence with
neighbouring economies. It means we
need to change our cooperation profoundly,” Lee Jae-Young, President, Korea
Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP).
Lack of information
to develop an optimal development strategy for the region
“We lack knowledge, because we may be getting it
the wrong way. At the same time, we lack fundamental understanding of what is
happening,” Andrei Bystritsky, Chairman of the Board, Foundation for
Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club; Professor, National
Research University Higher School of Economics.
SOLUTIONS
Developing social
infrastructure in the region
“When improving conditions for attracting
investment, we must tackle social issues. At first, we did not pay much
attention to it, as we counted on Russia having ministries of health,
education, culture, sport, etc. – it is their area of responsibility. But fast
growth requires support in all departments,” Yury Trutnev, Deputy Prime
Minister of the Russian Federation and Presidential Plenipotentiary Envoy to
the Far Eastern Federal District.
Focusing on
cutting-edge technologies and introducing innovation
“We started introducing new tools – first of all,
it is digital electronic services for the most complicated management areas,”
Yury Trutnev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Presidential
Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District.
Creating a
favourable image of the Far East in the media
“If you look at the general trend, 80% of all
investment coming to the region is Russian. It is neither good nor bad – it is
natural. How can you persuade anyone to work in the Far East, if the country’s
residents do not believe in it? Over the last years, we have seen fundamental
change: we have absolutely new economic regimes, the investment environment has
changed. But we are facing an objective to enter the media space to tell about
what is happening in the Far East. But we are not too successful so far,” Yury
Trutnev, Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation and Presidential
Plenipotentiary Envoy to the Far Eastern Federal District.
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