MOSCOW, Feb. 1 (Xinhua) -- Russia is planning to create incentives for investors and partners to participate in the development of its Far East region, a senior legislator says.
Russian legislative bodies are mulling laws to foster the Far East development program, as legal insurance and economic incentives are needed for the development of the vast region, said Sergei Zheleznyak, deputy chairman of the State Duma, or lower house of the Russian parliament.
"We need them now, but it is important to make sure that they are really the economic incentives, rather than attempts to create some artificial incentives for certain entrepreneurs," Zheleznyak told Xinhua during a recent interview.
Currently, there is a team of experts working on proposals made by the government on the laws. The high-level task force also involves deputies from the State Duma and the Federation Council, Zheleznyak said.
"In the end, these experts will decide on specific terms that will be put into these legislative initiatives," the legislator said.
It was important to make a clear and coherent system of incentives that allows "every entrepreneurs to quickly assess what kind of measurable benefits and promotions his efforts and investment will lead to," Zheleznyak said.
Commenting on the achievements made so far of the ambitious regional development program, Zheleznyak said economics is among the most promising areas.
The increasing investment into the Far Eastern city of Vladivostok and the Primorye Territory as a whole, the successful holding of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last year, the follow-up projects of logistics, transportation, processing of natural resources, among others, as good examples of the achievements, he said.
Meanwhile, there is a huge market for trade and service in the Asia-Pacific rim, and Russia is facilitating business activities and cross-border cooperation with China and other regional partners, he said.
China, as a strategic partner of Russia, will play an important role in implementing the program, Zheleznyak said, adding that the two sides should make good use of their effective mutually favorable cooperation and benefit the two peoples.
Besides legislative supports, economic incentives and infrastructure construction, Russia is furthering its steps to promote education and scientific research in the Far East region, Zheleznyak said.
He said that the Vladivostok-based Far East Federal University will be built into a leading research and intellectual center of the Asia-Pacific.
Though great efforts have been made, the legislator admitted that more needs to be done. With rough natural conditions, lack of cities and towns as well as insufficient facilities, the developing progress has been hindered, he said.
Therefore, it is important to ensure that goods and services made in the Far east region could be "quickly and cheaply" delivered to the European part of Russia in the future, and the Far East could become a real gateway to the Eastern world, he said.
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