Archive

Network Project “Russian-Chinese Cooperation: Regional Dimension (Siberia — Far East)”

The project’s goals are to undertake a comprehensive study and analysis of the evolution of Russian-Chinese regional cooperation, and build short- and mid-term scenarios of this cooperation, based on the current situation and assessment of the basic trends in political, economic, commercial, cultural and humanitarian relations between Moscow and Beijing. Application of project results will not be limited to a mere statement of pluses and minuses of bilateral partnership, but will enable an expert appraisal of Russian regions? capacity to put the different cooperation scenarios to life. General (federal-level) trends will be extrapolated to the local (regional) level; regional experts? opinions will be used to identify the extent to which the social, economic, administrative and humanitarian resources of specific RF constituent regions of Siberia and the Far East are involved in cooperation with PRC.

Project performers: Tomsk, Ural, Irkutsk, and Far East CASEs.

The project will focus mainly on the place and role or Russia’s borderline regions in implementation of the intergovernmental partnership strategy; it is designed to investigate the migration, demographic, environmental, and economic factors of Russian-Chinese relations. The project is intended to identify regional patterns and key tendencies in the development of bilateral cooperation in Primorsky Krai, Eastern Siberia (Irkutsk region), Western Siberia (Tomsk region, Altaisky Krai), and Sverdlovsk region.

The following project activities were completed over 2006:

The first, orientational seminar „Russian-Chinese Cooperation: Regional (Siberian-Far East) Dimension“ took place on May 19-21, 2006 in the premises of the Irkutsk CASE. The seminar was attended by Moscow experts and regional project participants. Discussions covered research methodology and the project’s problem field, criticisms and suggested improvements. The agenda included training sessions for representatives of the regional groups.

The second seminar was hosted by the Novgorod Center for Advanced Studies and Education on June 25-26, 2006 as part of the conference Inter-regional Studies: Prospects and Challenges at the Present Stage (breakout section on „Russian-Chinese Regional Cooperation (Siberia and Far East)“). Participants discussed preliminary results of the project.

The stock-taking academic seminar under the title „Russian-Chinese Regional Cooperation“ was held on November 17-22, 2006 in Tomsk.

Each of the CASEs involved in the project investigated the three key tendencies in Russian-Chinese relations taking the local (regional) perspective: 1) trade and investment; 2) migration; 3) cooperation in the energy sector. Based on these studies, recommendations to businesses and government agencies were prepared concerning the most promising areas of cooperation with the neighboring country.