Russian-American Pacific Partnership annual meeting to open in Vladivostok

Over a 100 hundred of business people, state authorities’ and non-governmental organizations’ representatives of the Russian Far East and the US West Coast will take part in the 18th annual meeting of the Russian-American Pacific Partnership (RAPP) that is opening in Vladivostok on Tuesday. The two-day meeting will also be attended by representatives of international organizations: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). This year's meeting the RAPP meeting will be held under the slogan “Common Interests for Shared Prosperity.” Representatives of the Russian and American business communities are planning to develop recommendations for the improvement of economic and non-commercial cooperation of regions and will sign a joint RAPP report on the meeting results. “Recently, US companies have been displaying an interest in the sphere of gambling business in Russia’s Primorsky Krai. Thus, the American company GGAM has expressed its interest in the project for the creation of the Primorye integrated entertainment zone. Potential American investors have also recently expressed willingness to invest in the construction of roads and industrial facilities in Primorsky Krai,” the press service of the regional administration told Itar -Tass. The RAPP is a bilateral forum engaging the private-sector and government to identify and address barriers to business and commerce between the Russian East and the United States. Committed RAPP volunteers, private-sector partners, and government representatives collaborate to expand opportunity between Russia’s East and the western United States. The US and the North Pacific Rim represent a leading economic region in the world, rich in resources and human capital with prospects for tremendous growth. As economic relations between the United States and Russia accelerate, more opportunities emerge for greater cooperation between the Russian East and the Western U.S. It is RAPP’s purpose to support and promote these opportunities through public and private partnerships for mutual benefit. The RAPP is the successor of the US West Coast-Russian Far East Ad-Hoc Working Group, which was renamed in 2002 to better reflect the goals and objectives of the Forum as a tool to promote US-Russian regional cooperation. Its annual meetings are held with the support of the governments of the Russian Federation and the United States under the auspices of the Ministry of Economic Development of Russia and the US Department of Commerce. RAPP recommendations are used in the work of the US-Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission, established in 2009.