Eastern Economic Forum in Russia Concludes with Major Success
Sept. 10—The ninth annual Eastern Economic Forum, held over Sept. 3-6 in Vladivostok, featured over 7,000 guests from 75 countries, primarily high-level officials and business people. Russian President Vladimir Putin keynoted the plenary session on Sept. 5.
A total of 258 agreements were signed, amounting to 5.4 trillion rubles ($59.7 billion), and with a special emphasis on building a large new chemical complex in Komi Republic and a new timber processing complex in Sakhalin, Sputnik reported.
The Komi Republic, an autonomous republic within the Russian Federation, is located in the far northeastern portion of European Russia, directly south of Severny Island (which divides the Barent Sea on the west from the Kara Sea on the east). It is rich in mineral resources, oil, natural gas, bauxite, gold and diamonds; wood and wood products are major industries.
Sakhalin Island is off the Pacific coast of Russia, and is also rich in oil and gas reserves, coal, timber, gold and ferrous metals.
Sputnik also reported on the impressions of President Putin’s speech by Indonesian military and security expert Dr. Connie Rahakundini Bakrie, who commented: “President Putin emphasized global cooperation, [that] Russia is ready to cooperate to establish a multipolar world order which reflects justice for a majority of countries.” Bakrie further said, “the most important thing for the Asia-Pacific is technology and science, because we are a little bit weak on that position. In President Putin’s speech yesterday, he really underlined that Russia will play a very big part in building science and technology together [with Asian countries], especially in the nuclear aspect of energy security.”
Sputnik concluded with Chinese Vice President Han Zheng’s comments at the event, “We are ready, together with the Russian side and guided by key agreements reached at the highest level, to accelerate interconnectedness, both in cross-border infrastructure and the harmonization of rules and standards, to increase the scale and quality of cooperation, to strengthen the foundation for the long-term sustainable development of Sino-Russian relations in the new era, to contribute to ensuring prosperity and stability in the region and around the world.”
