East Siberia development depends on ties with Asia Pacific - Buryat pres

ULAN-UDE, July 6 (Itar-Tass) -- President of Russia's Republic of
Buryatia Vyacheslav Nagovitsyn said on Tuesday comprehensive development
of Russia's East Siberian regions might be facilitated through economic
ties with Asia Pacific countries.
"Despite the global economic and financial crisis, the Asia-Pacific
region remains the zone of rapid economic development. Asia Pacific
countries have interests in Russia's eastern regions, and we must take
advantage from it," Nagovitsyn told the international workshop "Priorities
of the Baikal Region in Russia's Asian Police," which opened here on
Tuesday.
Among potential joint projects Nagovitsyn listed a projected
international railway route linking China's city of Tianjin and the
Naushki station (TransSib railway) via Mongolia. "Access to the Yellow Sea
area via Tianjin will make it possible to optimise export and import flows
with China, Japan, South Korea and other Asia Pacific countries not only
in Siberia but in the rest of Russian regions," he said.
The international workshop on the prospects for the development of
Russia's Baikal region up till the year 2025 opened in the Buryat capital
Ulan-Ude on Tuesday.
The workshop is attended by 300 delegates representing Russian federal
and regional authorities, businessmen and men of science from Russia,
Japan, China, Mongolia, South Korea and Kazakhstan.
Participants in the workshop will discuss issues of sustainable
socio-economic development of the region on the basis of hi-tech,
resource- and energy-saving production facilities allowing to preserve the
unique ecological system of Lake Baikal. Among other topics for discussion
will be such issues as expanding ties between Russia's eastern regions and
Asia-Pacific countries, improving the transport and energy networks in
Russia's Asian regions, and promoting tourism, the press service of the
Buryat government told Itar-Tass.
The workshop was co-sponsored by the natural resources and environment
protection committee of the Council of Federation upper chamber of the
Russian parliament, the interregional associations Siberian Accord, Far
East and Baikal Region, the Irkutsk region Baikal Territory governments,
and the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian and Far Eastern branches.
Among the workshop organizers are the Metropol investment and finance
company, the Baikal Institute of the Use of Natural Resources of the
Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch and the Buryat government.
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