Putin: Russian Far East to be key hub for cooperation with Asia-Pacific

President Putin said the Asia-Pacific region has become a major centre of global economic growth. He said Russia would further strengthen its economic and trade ties with the region.

He announced that a unified preferential regime for Business and investment would take effect across the entire Russian Far East and Arctic from 1 January 2027. He said the new system would make it easier for investors to obtain incentives, while unnecessary administrative and bureaucratic hurdles would be reduced.

The Russian president said that about 25 trillion roubles had been invested in the Far East over the past 11 years, and that the region’s gross regional product had grown more than threefold. He said these results showed that the strategy adopted for the development of the Far East had proved effective. However, he said the pace of growth would now have to be accelerated further over the next ten years.

President Putin said that in several key economic indicators, the Far East and the Arctic are growing faster than the Russian national average. He said the geographical proximity of these areas to the world’s fast-growing economic centres is a major competitive advantage, and that it must be fully used.

He said unemployment in the Far East had fallen fourfold over the past years to about 2.2 per cent. He said this is close to the Russian national average and historically low for the region. He added that new industries and investment had also raised employment and citizens’ incomes.

On natural resources, the Russian president said that raw materials from the Far East and the Arctic should be processed locally as far as possible, rather than only exported. He said that setting up complete production chains in metallurgy, gas, the petrochemical industry and other sectors would create new jobs and raise the revenues of regional economies.

Describing modern Technology as an important part of the region’s development, Vladimir Putin announced that a special legal regime for drones and other unmanned systems would be introduced in the Far East from 1 January 2027. He said its aim is to test new technologies quickly and bring them into practical use.

He also stressed promoting drone technology for delivering goods to remote areas and setting up modern unmanned transport systems.

Speaking about the development of digital infrastructure, President Putin said a target should be set to extend the quantum communication network to all regional administrative centres of the Far East by 2030.

In his address, President Putin also described the Northern Sea Route and the Trans-Arctic Transport Corridor as an important part of Russia’s future economic strategy. He said the aim is to nearly double annual cargo shipments through this corridor to 70 million tonnes by the end of this decade.

President Putin said modern icebreakers, ports and other Arctic infrastructure would be further developed to make the Northern Sea Route usable all year round. He said this would raise Russia’s transit and logistics importance between Europe and Asia.

Describing the Asia-Pacific region as a fast-emerging centre of the global economy, the Russian president said Russia wants to expand cooperation in trade, energy, industry, transport and investment with China, India and other Asian countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.

According to him, it is Russia’s long-term priority to make the Far East not just a region of natural resources but a centre of modern industry, new technology, global trade and a high standard of living.

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto, Mongolian Prime Minister Nyam-Osoryn Uchral, Myanmar’s First Vice President Nyo Saw and Chinese Vice Premier Ding Xuexiang also attended the plenary session in Vladivostok.

The 11th Eastern Economic Forum is being held from 1 to 4 September at the Far Eastern Federal University on Russky Island. This year’s central theme of the forum is “The Far East: Development for the Well-being of the People”.