Economics

22:22, 20.09.2007 | Khabarovsk Territory

Russia's Far East is likely to lose its economic and even territorial independence unless the country revisits its foreign economic policy in the east, Governor of the Khabarovsk region Viktor Ishayev told the Far Eastern International Economic Forum in Khabarovsk.

He explained that the 6 countries that make up northeast Asia were increasingly splitting into two groups, with economic leaders China, Japan, and South Korea finding themselves opposed by Mongolia, North Korea and Russia's Far East and Transbaikalia, which are being reduced to the region's periphery.
According to Ishayev, Russia has to foster the development of secondary industry in the region to prevent it from evolving into merely a supplier of resources to leading northeast Asian countries. The governor also called for allocating proceeds from customs duties collected on far eastern borders to the region's development.

- RBC