Deal by Deal, Russia Building Ties with Asia
Voice of America - 6 hours ago
VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA — Chinese President Hu Jintao announced Saturday more than $150 billion in spending on infrastructure projects as ...
Deal by Deal, Russia Building Ties with Asia
Russia's
President Vladimir Putin (L) greets China's President Hu Jintao upon
his arrival at the APEC Summit in Vladivostok, September 8, 2012.
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James Brooke
September 08, 2012
VLADIVOSTOK, RUSSIA — Chinese President
Hu Jintao announced Saturday more than $150 billion in spending on
infrastructure projects as part of efforts to boost Chinese and world
economic growth.
President Hu, speaking in Vladivostok at the Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation summit, said the billions would be spent on roads,
railroads, farming, and energy projects.
The meeting of 21 member economies in the Russian port city was
dominated by calls to boost infrastructure spending to cut
transportation bottlenecks in Asia.
The Chinese leader said the infrastructure spending would help boost
China’s internal demand, and allow China to import an extra $10 trillion
worth of foreign goods through 2015. Economists forecast that Chinese
economic growth will dip this year to 7.5 percent, China’s weakest rate
in 13 years.
"To strengthen infrastructure development is key to promoting recovery and achieving sustained and stable growth,” Hu said.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin, left, meets U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton on her arrival at the APEC summit in Vladivostok, Russia,
Sept. 8, 2012.
At the same meeting, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton praised
Russia’s entry last month into the World Trade Organization - a process
that took 20 years.
“The World Bank estimates that, by effectively implementing its WTO
commitments, Russia could increase its GDP by about 3 percent in the
medium term, and as much as 11 percent over the long run,” Clinton said.
“So it pays to join the rules-based trading system. Russia’s trading
partners stand to benefit as well. American exports to Russia could
double or even triple.”
Secretary Clinton said that during the first three years of the Obama
Administration, American exports to APEC nations increased by 45
percent.
The close American presidential race prevented President Obama from joining the 20 heads of government gathered in Vladivostok.
Clinton, the highest ranking American here, vowed to push the U.S.
Congress to drop Soviet-era restrictions on trade with Russia.
“To make sure our companies get to compete on a level playing field here
in Russia, we are working closely with the U.S. Congress to terminate
the application of Jackson-Vanik to Russia and grant Russian Permanent
Normalized Trade Relations,” Clinton said.
In the halls, executives of American companies that export to Russia,
such as Caterpillar and John Deere, said that lack of action by Congress
put them at a disadvantage to exporters from other countries.
Edward Verona, president of the U.S.-Russia Business Council, predicted
that Congress will act by the end of this month. But he also predicted
that Congress would simultaneously vote to bar suspected human rights
violators from receiving American visas. This could deny visas to about
60 Russian officials suspected of covering up the 2009 killing in a
Moscow jail of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer for an American-controlled
investment fund.
“It’s a foregone conclusion that there will be a Magnitsky component to the PNTR legislation,” Verona said.
Russian officials have threatened to retaliate if the United States
imposes a visa ban list in the Magnitsky case, but Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov downplayed the issue on Saturday.
Talking to reporters after meeting with Clinton, Lavrov said the
Magnitsky list did not come up. He added: "We are not going to take
interest in the contents of some lists, which have nothing to do with
the real problems of high-profile proceedings and an investigation,
which the Russian Federation is conducting.”
Russians and Americans found common ground on agreeing with the other 19
nations at the meeting to slash to token levels import barriers on 54
“green technologies.” These technologies include equipment used for
recycling, saving energy, treating waste water and generating power from
such renewable sources as the sun, wind and biomass.
“I am proud that here in Vladivostok, we have agreed to cap tariffs on
more than 50 environmental goods, which will help encourage the
development of clean technologies and greener growth across the region,”
Clinton said.
Traditional energies were also the focus of attention at the regional economic summit.
Officials from Japan and Gazprom, Russia’s gas giant, signed a
preliminary agreement on construction near Vladivostok of a $13 billion
liquefied natural gas plant and shipping port. At the same time, Russian
officials say that by the end of this year their Siberian oil export
pipeline will reach Kozimo, a terminus on the Sea of Japan.
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