14 November 2017
Speaking at a session of the ASEAN 2017 Business and Investment Summit in the Philippines capital Manila, the Russian Prime Minister stressed the importance of Russian investment forums in seeking prospective business partners.
In his presentation, Dmitry Medvedev spoke about the Russia–ASEAN partnership, which goes back many years, and expressed readiness to participate in joint initiatives to develop the energy, transport, and information infrastructure.
“We focus on building optimal transit routes, something that is very important for business. We are developing our sea and air ports in the Far East and building cross-border oil and gas pipelines. The main purpose of these efforts is to make freight transit between Asia and Europe as rapid as possible and economically viable, and also to establish a solid transport and manufacturing hub in Russia’s Far East to meet the needs of the entire Asia-Pacific region. We are endeavouring to create special conditions for doing business there, ones that are in line with global best practices”, the head of the Russian government said.
He added that entrepreneurs from across Asia-Pacific, including the ASEAN countries, China, Japan, South Korea, and India, have been actively benefiting from those opportunities.
“Many come to Russia, and to the Far East, to see our development tools in action and to attend our investment forums held in St Petersburg, Sochi and Vladivostok. They identify prospective partners there. More than 500 joint investment projects have been launched in the Far East to date. We have just recently hosted Eastern Economic Forum in Russia’s Far East. Many contracts amounting to around USD 50 bn have been signed there. So there’s progress in this sense”, Dmitry Medvedev noted.