Russia, ASEAN amass list of 57 joint investment projects - Ulyukayev
KUALA LUMPUR. Aug 25 (Interfax) - Russia and the ASEAN countries have amassed a list of 57 joint investment projects that continues to grow, Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev said in opening remarks at the Russian-Malaysian business forum in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday.
"The 57 investment projects proposed by Russian companies and business associations for possible implementation in Russia and the ASEAN countries have been approved by the economic ministries of the ASEAN countries. The list of project proposals includes power generation, engineering, information and communication technologies, innovation, transportation and logistics, medicine and agriculture," he said.
The results of the business mission, the second, demonstrated that Russian business has a growing interest in the ASEAN countries, while the Russian regions are interested in attracting investment and developing direct contracts with regions in the ASEAN countries.
Ulyukayev also mentioned the Russian initiative on cooperation in the area of electronic trade. The results of the project will be creation of a common space for Russian-ASEAN electronic trading, including common technological standards and a unified statutory base.
"I would like to stress that the electronic commerce topic is an extremely important one for Russia. We must continue to exchange information and experience in this area in order to combine our efforts in developing a single Russia-ASEAN electronic trading space and to coordinate technological standards and laws," he said.
High-level working groups on priority investment projects with individual ASEAN countries are being formed on a bilateral basis. "The Russian-Vietnamese working group has already proven its effectiveness. In the near future analogous mechanisms will be formed with Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia and Thailand," Ulyukayev said.
During the Russia-ASEAN economic ministers' consultations, Ulyukayev laid particular stress on the intensive development of project cooperation with ASEAN countries, including progress in implementing industry projects using money from the Russia-ASEAN Partnership Dialog Financial Fund.
"We are preparing joint projects in trade and investment, food security, power generation, transportation and logistics, development of science, innovations and education, making it easier to run small and medium enterprises and many others. We are interested in coordinating work with the partners in such areas as, for instance, technology transfers, use of technology based on global satellite navigation systems, and raising the effectiveness of information and communications technologies in emergency situations," he said.
ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, was formed in 1967. The charter members were Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines. Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia joined later on. Papua-New Guinea and East Timor have observer status.
