VLADIVOSTOK, September 29 (Itar-Tass) — The Far Eastern Federal University (FEFU) on Thursday launched the autumn semester of the educational project “APEC Promo - find out more about APEC!” During this academic year the project organisers have prepared a new program that will open up major opportunities before its participants for personal and professional development.
In particular, students will be familiarises with the traditions and the peculiarities of doing business in all countries members of the APEC forum. They will be given a chance to become a member of a team of volunteers for the preparation and events of the APEC Summit in Vladivostok in 2012, the youth affairs department of the Primorsky Territory told Itar-Tass. The project was launched this spring. It is being implemented within the framework of the educational program of the volunteer movement of the 2012 APEC summit.
“It is important to note that the Russian volunteer traditions will be established here in Vladivostok in 2012, and then this experience will be used during the preparation and events of the 2013 Universiade in Kazan, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the UEFA World Cup in 2018,” acting head of the Primorsky Territory youth affairs department Alexander Logunov noted.
During the spring semester of the project the students got acquainted with South Korea’s Consul General in Vladivostok Lee Yang Goo and the director of the Lotte company’s Russian Far East branch and got answers to their questions. The best students were invited to the School of 2012 APEC Leaders and to an international shift of the Youth Educational Forum Seliger-2011.
Far Eastern Federal University is the youngest institution of higher education on a vast territory to the east of Tomsk (Russia’s Siberian city) in point of view of its legal structure and name. At the same time, a long history of the universities Far Eastern Federal University comprises makes it the oldest one in the region.
Edict of the Russian Federation President to establish Far Eastern Federal University on the basis of four Russia’s leading institutions of higher education – Far Eastern National University, Far Eastern State Technical University, Pacific State University of Economics and Ussuriisk State Pedagogical Institute - was issued on October 21, 2009, the day when the Oriental Institute 110th anniversary was celebrated. Oriental Institute was the first higher education institution in the Russian Far East, and being its legal successor, Far Eastern Federal University carries on its traditions, according to the FEFU website.
The capital of the Primorsky Territory is getting a new look for the APEC summit that will be held on the Russky Island in 2012. Under the program, tens of squares are to be reconstructed. Not only historical buildings, but also those that can be seen from the Amur Bay are to be repaired - nearly 900 buildings - most of them are dwelling houses. The work under the program was launched last year and should be completed by the end of 2011.
At present, the construction of more than 40 facilities for the APEC summit is underway in Vladivostok. Most of them will be completed by the end of this year. The deadlines for certain facilities have been shifted from the end of 2011 to the spring of 2012. They are the bridge across the Zolotoi Rog (Golden Horn) Bay, the Novy settlement – De-Friz Peninsula - Sedanka – Patrokl Bay highway with the low-level bridge De-Friz - Sedanka and part of the Patrokl Bay – Zolotoi Rog Bay motor road section. These facilities will be commissioned no later than May 31, 2012.
The 2012 APEC summit facilities in Vladivostok include roads, bridges, hotels, water and power supply facilities. In 2010, in accordance with the special federal program, the financing of the construction work on the Russky Island amounted to 29.3 billion roubles - 4.5 times more than in 2009. The proposal put forward for Russia to hold the 2012 summit on Russky Island was confirmed at the end of the APEC Australia 2007 summit in Sydney, Australia. At a press conference in Sydney, regional governor Sergei Darkin estimated the cost of hosting the summit at 147.5 billion roubles. The construction of infrastructure serving the summit, by Darkin experts’ estimates, would aid economic development in the Russian Far East and would see more than a six-fold increase of the gross regional product by 2020.
The APEC brings together 19 countries in the Asia-Pacific region and two territories - Hong Kong and Taiwan. Along with Russia this structure includes such economically important world powers such as Canada, China, Korea, Mexico, the United States and Japan. APEC is the premier forum for facilitating economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region. APEC is the only inter governmental grouping in the world operating on the basis of non-binding commitments, open dialogue and equal respect for the views of all participants. Unlike the WTO or other multilateral trade bodies, APEC has no treaty obligations required of its participants. Decisions made within APEC are reached by consensus and commitments are undertaken on a voluntary basis. APEC has 21 members - referred to as “Member Economies” - which account for approximately 40.5 percent of the world’s population.