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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, good afternoon.

Greetings to all of you at the Eastern Economic Forum.

This is the seventh forum. I remember that it was started by Mr Trutnev.

I will be honest, I had my doubts: we have the St Petersburg and Sochi economic forums, in other regions. But, considering how important this region is for Russia as a whole, it was decided to proceed with organising it. I have never regretted it, because, indeed, it turned out to be very popular, especially in current conditions, as we can now see.

I will not list everything connected with it right now, as you are aware of it all. And I must say that all the decisions on the development of the Far East that we, together with you, have worked out are in effect. Almost all of them are in effect – I will not list them now, we have the main plenary session tomorrow, where we will talk about this in more detail. But everything that has been offered as some kind of bonus or as some kind of incentive is working and yielding results, which I think you are also aware of. I have been talking about it with my colleagues just now. I repeat, tomorrow we will talk in greater detail.

It is clear that in such a large endeavour we cannot avoid questions that demand heightened attention, and, of course, your support – considering the practical experience that you have with working in this territory, which is certainly strategic for Russia. With your support we will improve the tools that the state has proposed for the development of the Far East.

I know that you moderated various topics during the preliminary work. And, of course, I would like to hear your opinion on what has been done and how. Your views and suggestions on what should be done in the near future are more relevant than ever.

I am pleased to give the floor to our colleague, Mr Trutnev. He will moderate our meeting today.

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