Economic Cooperation between the Russian Far East and Asia-Pacific Countries
Preface
In-depth studies of international economic cooperation capacities of Northeast Asia were launched in a big way in the early 1990s. The concept of sub-regional economic integration within the region of Northeast Asia (originally termed the Japan Sea Rim, or the Japan Sea Ring), put forward by H. Kanamori, R. Scalapino, K. Ogawa and other researchers, already in 1991 was substantiated in economic and political terms into an international project of economic development of the Tumen-river area at the common boundary of China, DPRK and Russia. Not only researchers, but also politicians pinned great hopes on that «Golden Delta». The idea of sub-regional cooperation within that region received a powerful backing from the international communities. The UNO Development Program organized a special office in Beijing intended for consolidating the international forces advocating this project.
The issues of economic cooperation in the Tumen-river area and in Northeast Asia in general have attracted and are attracting a great number of scholars and experts from research, public and political organizations of many countries: Japan, the Republic of Korea, China, Russia, the USA, Finland, Mongolia and the DPRK. Bustling activity in this direction was and still is performed by Northeast Asia Economic Forum (with the head-office in Honolulu), Economic Research Institute for Northeast Asia (Niigata), Institute for Russian and NIS Economic Studies (Tokyo), Yonsei University (Seoul), Mongolian Development Research Center (Ulaanbaatar), Economic Research Institute FEB RAS (Khabarovsk), East-West Center (Honolulu), Shanghai Institute for International Studies (Shanghai), Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (Seoul) and other research centers.
From the very beginning (1991), these studies have been most actively promoted and supported by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (Tokyo). Under its aegis, important interdisciplinary and multinational projects concerning the development of guidelines and strategies for economic cooperation in Northeast Asia have been accomplished.
In 1991-1993 the Sasakawa Peace Foundation backed the first of those projects that was aimed at the information compliance of the Russian Far East involvement in the economic cooperation processes in Northeast Asia. Within the framework of this project carried out by the Economic Research Institute FEB RAS, a monograph called The Russian Far East: an Economic Survey was prepared for publication in Russian, English and Japanese. Later this work was revised and published twice. That project was the initial stage of the building of today's information infrastructure for international cooperation in the Russian Far East area.
In 2004 under the support provided by the Sasakawa Peace Foundation, the Economic Research Institute began to work on a new project aimed at identification of challenges, potentialities, as well as political and economic tools for the involvement of the Russian Far East in economic cooperation moving along in Northeast Asia. The compiled monograph is a summarized result of a three year research carried out in the bounds of that project.
In that project an emphasis was intentionally laid on the external and internal conditions promoting and/or detrimental to the involvement of Russia and the Russian Far East in sub-global integration processes in Northeast Asia as well as on institutional mechanisms coordinating that involvement. The authors will be grateful for any constructive comments and suggestions for a more detailed elaboration of the mechanisms facilitating economic integration in the sub-region of Northeast Asia.
The project was accompanied by two editions reflecting preliminary results of the research, they were «The Russian Far East in the Asia-Pacific Region. Proceedings of the International Workshop held 25-26 January, 2005. Khabarovsk» and "The Russian Far East in the Asia-Pacific Region. Materials of Field Studies 24 October - 5 November 2005".
A large international group of authors and experts took part in the development of the project and in the preparation of the monograph which is the summarizing result of the tree-year project research. The project manager, compiler and scientific editor of the monograph is Academician P.A. Minakir.
Contributors of separate sections of the book are: E.I. Devaeva, Doctor (Economics) (5), V.D. Kalashnikov, Professor (Economics) (4), V.V. Kuchuk, Doctor (Economics) (6), S.N. Leonov, Professor (Economics) (7), P.A. Minakir, Academician (2, 7, Introduction), О.М. Prokapalo, Doctor (Economics) (1), A.S. Sheingauz, Professor (Agriculture) (3).
Group of experts: Prof. Susumu Yoshida (Japan), Prof. Kiichi Mochizuki (Japan), Mr. Hiroshi Takahashi (Japan), Dr. Takashi Yajima (japan), Prof. Satoshi Mizobata (Japan), Prof. Qu Wei (China), Prof. Yin Jiangping (China), Dr. Jin Park (Republic of Korea), Dr. Mohamed Ariff (Malaysia), Prof. Mya Than (Thailand), Dr. Sung Kyu Lee (Republic of Korea), Dr. Nyamtseren Lkhamsuren (Mongolia), and Prof. Li Chuan-Xun (China).
Logistic provision group: V.G. Buldakova, M.Y. Bausheva, Chen Woo Lee, Kaori Kobayashi, Lolahon Saiidova.
Editorial and technical group: L.A. Samokhina.
The monograph is issued in the Russian and English languages. Translated from the Russian by Y.V. Kucheryavenko.