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President Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen.

Today, we are going to review a number of issues pertaining to the national security of the Far Eastern Federal District. The Security Council addressed this subject in 2002 and made decisions that alleviated the most urgent problems. The gross regional product and the incomes of the district’s residents began to grow. We have set in motion positive trends in developing foreign trade and attracting investment.

However, we have not fundamentally changed the situation in the Far East. We have been unable to overcome the region’s chronic negative trends. These are primarily a decline in the population and deep imbalances in the district’s structure of production and foreign economic contacts.

The Far East is not well integrated into the federal economic, information, and transportation networks. Little or no use is being made of the district’s natural competitive advantages, such as its transit corridors.

There persists a serious incongruity between the district’s capacities and its current economic and social condition. All these factors pose a grave threat to our political and economic positions in Asia and the Pacific, and, without any exaggeration, to the national security of Russia as a whole.

This situation has largely been created by the lack of a systemic, comprehensive approach to the strategic planning of the area’s development, and by our imperfect regional policy as a whole.

There is no doubt that we should make rational use of our growing political, organizational, and especially economic resources in order to develop the regions of Russia.

The federal and regional authorities should draw up a clear-cut and realistic programme of action with a view to adopting a comprehensive strategy for the development of the Far East.

I believe that we will be able to use the experience of preparing and carrying out such a pilot project in subsequent planning of programmes for the development of other areas of the Russian Federation.

I’d like to emphasize that our major goal is not to resolve individual, albeit very important, economic problems, but to create decent conditions for the life and work of our citizens.

There is much we should do to remove infrastructural limitations on the social and economic growth of the Far East. In other words, we should develop the energy industry, public utilities, border infrastructure, and, of course, the transportation network, as well as modern logistics and telecommunications centers.

In order to implement such large-scale and capital-intensive projects, we should make use of mechanisms of public-private partnership, concessions, and special economic zones, which are just as important as budgetary funds. It is important to give an impetus to major investment projects, such as the fuel and energy sector, companies exporting highly processed natural resources, and upgrading the defense industry, as well as centres of innovation and high technology.

In general, we should make a major effort to create a favorable business environment in the district. Maybe, it makes sense to think about improving tariff and tax policy.

The economic space of the Far East should be reliably protected against pressure from organized crime and corruption. It is essential to take prompt measures in order to improve the performance of law-enforcement agencies in the district. In this respect, I am counting on close cooperation between the federal and regional authorities.

We can point to examples of effective regional work in Siberia, for instance. As you know, Operation Energy has been going on for quite some time there, and since its inception, enormous amounts of money have been retrieved and returned to the state and large numbers of offenders apprehended. Nothing prevents us from adopting the same all-round approach in the Far East.

I would also like you to pay special attention to the development of comprehensive measures for protecting the environment and monitoring the use of natural resources.

We should orient all our plans to making the Far East a comfortable and attractive place to live. Therefore, everything is of importance here – resolving the housing problem, building a dependable gas network, and developing the medical, cultural and sports sectors.

I’d like to lay special emphasis on the fact that the task of attracting able-bodied residents to the Far East and persuading them to stay should be primarily resolved in the context of major economic projects and new jobs.

Needless to say, the scale of the forthcoming development of the Far East demands a clear-cut determination of the resources required for this purpose. I think it would be appropriate to discuss these questions today, first of all, in order to make more effective use of the allocated money, and also to attract significant non-budgetary funding for the development of the Far East.

Finally, in our efforts to ensure the growth of the Far East, we should make active use of the foreign policy factor, that is, play an effective role in regional integration, promote bilateral contacts and cross-border cooperation with neighboring nations.

In conclusion, I’d like to emphasize once again that in my opinion, a well-orchestrated effort at all levels of government – local, federal and regional – will be a decisive factor in successfully developing the Far East.

To achieve this goal, I think it is necessary to establish a government commission on the socio-economic development of the Far Eastern Federal District. We will talk about this further during the meeting.