28 October 2002 00:00
SPEECH BY RUSSIAN PRIME MINISTER MIKHAIL KASYANOV AT HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT MEETING OF ASIA-PACIFIC ECONOMIC COOPERATION (APEC) FORUM, OCTOBER 25, 2002
Mr. Chairman, I thank you for the words of solidarity you have just spoken.
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen,
I am glad at our meeting. It is symbolic that we have met here, in Mexico - a country sharing the basic principle of APEC and having chosen a path leading to economic progress, to cooperation and integration.
For the first time, an APEC summit is being held on the Latin American continent, and this circumstance, I am confident, will serve the consolidation of the countries united by the expanses of the Pacific Ocean. We are marking a kind of jubilee - the tenth anniversary of APEC leaders' meetings, and this is also a weighty indicator of the significance for our countries of such joint work. APEC is yielding its practical results, and so has real prospects.
In spite of the difference in economic models and national interests, our common striving is to make the Asia-Pacific home open for partnership, prosperous and stable. That is why along with questions of social and economic development of the region we are having ever more often to discuss security problems too.
The impudent and cruel hostage-taking in Moscow the day before yesterday ranks with the events of September 11 last year, and the recent bloody events in Indonesia and the Philippines. All of this again demonstrates that terrorism is a great threat to the security of citizens, it is a threat to our future, to all civilization.
Terrorism would never be able to exist not only without its poisonous ideology, but also without the serious financial and material support that it has. I am convinced that the struggle against international terrorism must acquire a powerful economic dimension, which in turn requires the closest international cooperation.
This task is directly associated with the need to cut off the sources of financing for terrorist organizations, at the base of which lies the dirty money from contraband and drug trafficking. APEC, with its financial levers and strong political influence, has enormous capabilities for that.
Esteemed colleagues, although today the economies of many of our countries are dynamically evolving, an analysis of the situation shows that instability still persists in the world economy and finances. At the macroeconomic level there continue to occur major systemic disruptions throwing countries back in attempts to create a basis for sustainable development.
The deepening unevenness in the socioeconomic development of countries and whole regions is likewise obvious. Moreover, the traditional mechanisms of an early warning of financial and economic crises are not working and the conclusion is but one: it is necessary to go on persistently looking for effective methods and approaches to a qualitative improvement of the situation.
I believe that the APEC forum, at which are synchronized the interests of the state and of national business communities, will offer a real opportunity to work out a solution to such problems. We have many times repeated that our priorities continue to be improvement of the world trading system and the liberalization of trade and of investment regimes.
It is no less important, however, to build on the strength resource of the entire world financial system. I think that one way is to enhance the efficacy in activity of international financial institutions, to take the fullest account of national specifics and to work on the principles of openness, efficient control and more accurate forecast in flows of hot, short-term money.
But with all that, to our mind, there can by no means be any taking the risk of lowering the investment attractiveness of countries with a transitional, developing economy. I would also like to add that, despite the serious internal tasks, Russia makes a substantial contribution to solving global problems, in particular, to easing the debt burden of the least developed countries. Already today, in the writing-off of debts for these countries we hold one of the leading places in the world, and in the written off debt-GDP ratio, Russia, undoubtedly, holds the first place.
Of course, possible new solutions in areas of global financial and economic stabilization will require a more serious analysis and detailed elaboration. But already now we could together give thought to how to increase the effectiveness of the APEC mechanisms, working groups and dialogue structures already in place.
On the other hand, new directions should be included in the agenda, such as elaboration of recommendations for the development of individual segments of the world economy and world trade, and Russia is ready to suggest such concrete measures for discussion at the upcoming APEC meetings in the near future.
Esteemed gentlemen, today Russia is striving to substantially expand its contribution to the region's economic development and the work of APEC. It will be recalled that Moscow recently played host to the APEC innovation forum and the meetings of the working group on telecommunications. An investment symposium and an investment fair of APEC were held in Vladivostok.
In recent years Russia has become a participant in most of the regional and sub-regional economic and political associations in the Asia-Pacific region. Let me note that together with our partners we have accumulated some useful experience of political coordination and of cooperation in the area of regional security within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
I think that this experience could be interesting also in work within the framework of the APEC mechanisms. We intend to continue to advance the process of Asian-Pacific integration. And here, especially with consideration for the stable positive dynamics in the national economy, we have new opportunities emerging. It is now the fourth year in a row that Russia boasts a fairly serious level of economic growth. The country's budget has been executed with a steady surplus; the rate of exchange of national currency - the Russian ruble - is stable and predictable. The gold and foreign exchange reserves in the last four years have quadrupled and fully provide the money stock.
Important social questions are also being tackled. Financial and economic stability in the country has made it possible to substantially raise the real incomes of the population - in the four years they have grown by more than 20 percent. Today the economic growth of Russia rests to a great extent both on exports and on internal demand. In the four years the volume of GDP has increased by more than 20 percent, and the volume of industrial production by more than a third.
We have been consistently working on the enhancement of the investment attractiveness of the Russian market, and have been actively conducting work on the Russian Federation's entry into the World Trade Organization on acceptable terms for the national economy.
Esteemed colleagues, we see that a new regional configuration is arising in the Asia-Pacific space today. It is particularly manifest in energy, in transport and in the commonality of the information and technological space.
And in this regard, it is obvious that there is no alternative to the large-scale participation of the Russian Federation in the affairs of the Asia-Pacific region. The future of Siberia and the Russian Far East is most closely associated with the development of this region - and Russia as a whole, with its powerful intellectual, technological and serious industrial potential, can play a unique role in the integration processes of the Asia-Pacific region.
Thus, we suggest commencing work on the establishment of a reliable, long-term energy system in the region's countries because very soon now the share of East Asia in the total use of electricity will sharply increase, and so it is already necessary to get ready a network of sources of energy and routes for its delivery to the user with a view to meeting the growing requirements of the developing economies of the region.
The vigor of international investors in the Sakhalin oil and gas fields is already producing concrete results now. Next on line are plans and development of the huge in scale oil and gas resources of Eastern Siberia and the expansion of necessary transport infrastructure.
The project for connecting the Trans-Korean Railway Mainline to the Trans-Siberian Mainline of Russia also opens up, in our view, new possibilities for the entire regional infrastructure of APEC. The current political and economic conditions on the Korean Peninsula create, we think, favorable conditions for the implementation of this project.
We rely upon the capacity of our country for integration into the world economic system and an innovation path of development, a highly skilled human resource. On this path we will always be open for partnership and the realization of joint initiatives. In a word, this is a colossal field for joint work in the interests of stability and the prosperity of our common region, and we can use it effectively.
Thank you for your attention.
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