RUSSIAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY SEEKING TO JOIN BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES OF RUSSIA AND ASIAN-PACIFIC COUNTRIES

Implementing the program of international cooperation, the Russian Academy of Business pays special attention to developing business-opportunities of Russian enterprises and their Asian partners. Nowadays Russia seeks well-balanced cooperation both in Europe and Asia. With Russia's admission to the Asian-Pacific Economic Community, the Asian-Pacific direction is of great importance in the external economic and trade policy of the Russian Federation at present.

First and the most is to realize the mere fact that further dynamic development of Russian business should be based on the natural geoeconomic advantages of Russia as a great Eurasian country, simultaneously depending on and influencing on both European and Asian market tendencies. Thus the idea to hold the International conference «Russia - Asian-Pacific region: new boundaries of cooperation» was born in autumn, 2003. The Russian Academy of Business and the Russian Union of Industrialists hold it on March 23, 2004 at the Congress-center of the President-hotel in Moscow.

The task was put: to gather interested enterprise structures, research institutions, various business-associations and authorized representatives of Russian federal and regional authorities and to discuss main trends and key prospects of the trade and investment collaboration between the Russian Federation and Asian-Pacific countries, opportunities to enhance cooperation in the transport and power infrastructure sectors, science and information technology fields. As the opinion of current and possible Asian-Pacific partners of Russia was of no doubts important, representatives of foreign embassies and appropriate promoting structures were also invited.

More than 100 participants from Russia and 9 foreign countries took part in the conference.

• Key speakers were:
  • Irina Gorbulina, President, Russian Academy of Business;
  • Victor Dombrovsky, Vice-president, Russian Union of Industrialists;
  • Viktor Glukhikh, president of the International Congress of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs;
  • Alexander Murychev, President, Russian Association of Regional Banks;
  • Aleksandr Granberg, Member of RAS (Russian Academy of science) Presidium, Chairperson of the Council for the Study of Productive Resources of MEDT (Ministry of Economic Development and Trade of the Russian Federation) and RAS;
  • Valery Makarov, Academician, Secretary of RAS Social Science Dpt., Director of Central Economic-Mathematical Institute (CEMI RAS);
  • U.B. Wijekoon, Ambassador of Sri-Lanka in Russian Federation;
  • Ivao Ohashi, Chief representative, Japanese External Trade Organization (JETRO);
  • Mashahiro Ikeda, Head of Representative Office of Rotobo (Japan Association for Trade with Russia & Central-Eastern Europe) in Moscow and others.
  • Gennagy Chufrin, Vice-director of the Institute for World Economic and International Relations of RAS;
  • Inna Mangutova, Director, All-Russian Association of Privatized and Private Enterprises;
  • Natalia Narochnickaya, Deputy Chairperson, Committee on international affairs, Russian State Duma;
  • Alexander Karelin, Deputy Chairperson, Committee on international affairs, Russian State Duma;
  • Nicolai Chercasov, Main adviser, Secretariat of the Bureau of Interparlamentary Assembly of the Eurasian Economic Community;
  • Vladimir Syrkin, First Deputy Chairperson, Government of Khabarovsk region;
  • Vadim Filatov, First Deputy Chairperson, Government of Novosibirsk region;
  • Evgeny Galichanin, Deputy of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly, Chairperson of the Energy Committee of the State Duma
  • Vasily Mikheev, Deputy Director of Institute of Far East of RAS.

• Key subjects were discussed throughout three plenary sessions at the Conference:
  • Investment and technological cooperation of Russia and countries of the Asian-Pacific region;
  • The importance and prospects for transport and power infrastructure development;
  • New ways for private industry subjects' interaction in the region.

• The following questions we also touched upon:
  • Consideration of prospects of trade-economic, innovation-technological and investment cooperation of Russia with the countries of Asia-Pacific region;
  • Discussion on new mechanisms of business interactions;
  • Analysis of opportunities to expand mutually advantageous contacts and to realize the long-term projects.

• Speeches at the Conference were delivered by:
  • The chiefs and leading experts of the key Russian ministries and departments for the economic development;
  • Heads of regional administrations of Siberia and the Russian Far East;
  • Guidance of the large Russian companies actively developing business with the countries of the Asia-Pacific region;
  • Top-managers of the commercial and industrial, power engineering, transporting companies of Asian - Pacific region;
  • Chiefs of businessmen communities and associations;
  • Top functionaries of the embassies of Japan, India, the USA, Cuba, and Vietnam took the active part in the conference.
  • The Japanese educational center of management and others.

The fruitful work of the Conference gave birth to the idea to start the work for organizing the Asian Economic Forum in Moscow in autumn, 2004: «RUSSIA AND ASIAN - PACIFIC REGION: NEW PROSPECTS OF COOPERATION: How can we join business opportunities of Russian and Asia-Pacific countries?»

Mission of the project is to create additional competitive advantages at the global market for both Russian and foreign enterprises ready to develop rational and mutually advantageous cooperation and to involve east regions of Russia into the modern market system of the Asian-Pacific region.

An important task of the forum is to permit an efficient interaction of authorities and enterprise structures at the interstate, federal and regional levels.

Here you may get the detailed information on the goal of the oncoming Asian Forum, it's preliminary program and main topics to discuss.