Комментарии Председателя Совета директоров Группы "Сумма" Зиявудина Магомедова агентству РИА Новости по итогам работы Делового консультативного совета АТЭС в 2011 году

Development of transport and supply chains, sustainable development, green cities, food security, and technology transfer will be high-priority discussion items when Russia hosts APEC in 2012, Ziyavudin Magomedov, Chairman of the Business Advisory Council for APEC 2012 and Chairman of the Board for Summa Group, told Prime in an interview.

"Next year we will continue working on traditional APEC topics such as regional integration, free trade and food security, which have been actively discussed while the United States has chaired the organisation. In 2012, a great deal of attention will be given to topics that are important to Russia, such as the modernisation of transport and supply chains, technology transfer and green cities," said Magomedov.

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER

In 2011, the APEC Business Advisory Council began a discussion of an initiative proposed by Russia for the creation of a Technology Transfer Partnership, which would improve the exchange of technology between APEC member economies, said Magomedov.

"The initiative received tremendous support from our colleagues. Next year we plan to take specific steps in making this happen," he stated.

The Technology Transfer Partnership was conceived as an initiative to unite the 21 APEC member economies. "We're talking about creating a mechanism that by facilitating technology transfer between APEC nations would accelerate modernisation and economic growth. We're talking about technology for high-priority, growth industries, which could have a substantial impact on solving socio-economic problems," said Magomedov.

"Technologies related to the production of 'green' goods and services are especially interesting. Right now these are often unprofitable projects, because the market is too small. In order for the market to become large enough to be attractive from a business perspective, new mechanisms must be worked out," Magomedov noted.

According to Magomedov, the partnership mechanism could be created in the medium-term. As an example, he gave the example of APEC's experience with the Food Security Partnership, which took about three years to create.

Speaking on November 10 at a press conference on the results being achieved by the Business Advisory Council, the Council's outgoing chairwoman, Deborah Henretta, said that it regards Russia's initiative as being both very timely and urgent for APEC nations. According to Henretta, the initiative will help narrow the technology gap between the region's nations.

A BRIDGE BETWEEN EUROPE AND ASIA

"Russia has great prospects for developing transport and supply chains, and huge potential in terms of opportunities for transport. Our nation's unique geographical position makes it, in essence, a 'bridge' between Europe and the countries of Asia," Magomedov believes.

"Certainly, we see opportunities for optimising transport and supply chains," said the co-chair of APEC 2011's Business Advisory Council. Research from the University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business that was presented at the Business Advisory Council, showed that Russia holds last place among APEC nations in terms of the level of development of its transport and supply chains.

Magomedov believes that, in particular, modernisation of the railway infrastructure is necessary, including lines going to ports. "Right now this is the bottleneck that prevents the full potential of Russian ports being achieved. The development of ports is being hampered by the limitations of the Russian railways," explained Magomedov. He said that if the shortage of railway capacity leading to ports can be eliminated, then annual freight traffic could increase by 150 million tonnes.

Others steps for developing the transport system are modernisation projects on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Magomedov suggested that offering favourable terms to companies that invest in the transport infrastructure should be considered.

THE GREEN FUTURE AND LIVING CITIES

Magomedov said that the development of "living" cities may eventually become one of the main topics in Russia. "Urban populations will increase. The creation of new environmental standards affecting the lives of those living in the city is gradually becoming ever more urgent," he noted.

He explained that a number of countries, including the United States and Singapore, have already created ecological and quality-of-life standards, adapted to the specific conditions of life in these countries. "We don't think it would be right to blindly copy these standards. Conditions in Russia are so different to those in these countries. Therefore, we need to work out our own domestic environmental standards which, of course, should be based on the best world practices," said Magomedov.

"We need to build on the experience that we already have as we create our own standards and this process will begin next year," stated Magomedov.

In 2012, the leaders of the APEC nations will be meet on September 8-9 on Russky Island in Vladivostok. A meeting of the APEC Business Advisory Council is traditionally held as part of the APEC programme. This year Magomedov has been a Co-chair of the APEC Business Advisory Council and next year, when Russia chairs APEC, he will move up to be the Counci’s Chairman.

Twenty one economies in the Asia-Pacific region belong to APEC, including the United States and Russia, along with Taiwan and Hong Kong. APEC was formed in 1989 to stimulate free trade and economic cooperation between the nations of the Pacific Rim. APEC's mission is to increase economic growth, raise the region's level of education and prosperity and to strengthen the Asia-Pacific community. Roughly 40% of the world population lives in member countries, which produce roughly 54% of global GDP.

Russia has been a member of the organisation since 1998. Based on comments by members of the Business Advisory Council, despite this long membership, only in 2010 did our country become significantly active on the Council and start to sponsor specific proposals supported by all members of the organisation.