[Analytics] Russian Eastern Economic Forum as a global platform of international projects

The major Chinese industrial companies intend to take part in the 5th Eastern Economic Forum for the purpose of effective fulfilment of the national “Belt and Road Initiative”, as well as in order to promote the program “Made in China 2025”. The Forum will take place in Vladivostok, Russia, between 4 and 6 September, 2019. The delegation will include members of public authorities, officials, and Chinese experts. Yi Lu specially for the Pan Pacific Agency.

The Eastern Economic Forum is a global event of international business and the first world intersectoral platform intended to stimulate the transformation of the productive sector, to promote the investment, as well as to drive the innovations in the Asia-Pacific Region. The Forum will be held for the fifth time this year and it means that being the initiator of the EEF, Russia should take stock of what has happened since the year of 2015.

Let us remind that the plenary session “The Far East: Expanding the Range of Possibilities” became a landmark event for the EEF 2018. Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russian President Vladimir Putin, President of Mongolia Battulga Khaltmaagiin, Prime Minister of Japan Shinzō Abe, and Prime Minister of the Republic of Korea Lee Nak-yon took part in the session, and this fact indicates interest of the heads of states of Asia-Pacific Region in discussion of new projects of economic cooperation. More than 6,000 delegates and 1,357 media representatives from 60 countries of the world participated in the work of the Forum 2018. In so doing, the most numerous delegations were the Chinese one (it included 1,096 persons), the Japanese one (335 persons), the Mongolian one, as well as the delegations of the USA and Great Britain.

The scale and scope of the Eastern Economic Forum increase every year. The EEF brings innovative concepts and ways of solution of problems. It should be noted that this platform is not only an economic one any more. Past experience demonstrates that the heads of the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region, as well as members of ministries and authorities discuss the acutest issues of international cooperation, transforming the Eastern Economic Forum into a political and economic dialogue.

The participation of foreign companies is of particular interest for China. More than 340 members of world-class business corporations took part in the EEF 2018. Two hundred twenty agreements for a total of US$ 48 billion were signed resulted from mutual dialogues during the last Forum. The amount specified in the agreements contributes an attractive share in the global business for the countries of the Asia-Pacific Region. Therefore, the Chinese authorities, which are intended to fulfil the global projects within the “Belt and Road Initiative”, should focus on this aspect.

The participation of representatives of our country in the Eastern Economic Forum 2019 in Russia will provide an opportunity to share own experience, to exchange knowledge with global leaders of industrial sector in order to achieve sustainable growth of the Chinese economy in further. Hope, the industrial corporations of China will use the international platform of the Forum to strengthen international relationships and cooperation, as well as to promote the brand “Made in China”.

Yi Lu is a professor of the China Institute International Studies. Russian version of this article is available here.