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The gap between Vladivostok's housing and public facilities and those in most other major port cities in the Pacific region is apparent on arrival at the newly built but very basic international airport terminal, where arriving passengers must tramp up the stairs to get to immigration. "Not just pipelines and roads but also airports and hotels and education," Deripaska said. "In Russia we are just beginning. We rested a long time on our cushion of oil and gas. We need to be competitive and we have to improve efficiency." To pay for such improvements is costly, and Russia has made attracting more investment from its wealthy neighbors a key aim in hosting the APEC summit. The government has been working to make the investment environment more attractive, said Vladimir Dmitriev, CEO of VEB, a Russian state-owned bank. But much remains to be done in terms of amending laws and ensuring they are enforced fairly, he said. Meanwhile, to ensure efficiency, prevent duplication and other waste and to coordinate logistics requires national planning. APEC can play a role, those attending the conference said, in forging regional networks, especially in energy and transport. South Korea is keen to buy Russian natural gas, importing a bigger share of the 35 million tons of energy it buys each year through pipelines, rather than shipping by sea from the Middle East and Australia, said Yang Bong Jin, CEO of Hyundai Energy & Resources. "Pipeline gas is safer, cheaper and easier to use. All would be beneficiaries," Yang said. Korea would also welcome a regional "smart grid" for electricity distribution, to help it use excess supplies from Russia at times of peak demand. Connecting railways from Russia through North Korea to the South Korean port of Pusan would provide greater shipping capacity. South Korea could also help Russia streamline border crossing procedures, which can be like a "snail line," Yang said. "In South Korea, immigration takes only a few seconds," he said. Sharing technology to help speed things along could be a "magic wand." "Through sharing of infrastructure we may save time and minimize duplication," he said. Looking at the decades it took Japan and later China to develop, this will all take time, said Deripaska, the Rusal CEO. "We shouldn't expect everything should happen overnight," he said. John Faraci, chairman and CEO of International Paper, said Russia appears determined to develop the infrastructure needed to attract foreign investors. "We wouldn't be investing $1 billion if we weren't seeing a commitment from the Russian government to diversify the economy," he said.
[Associated
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