SEOUL, December 9. /TASS/. The Industrial Bank of Korea has proposed setting up a joint fund to help promulgate infrastructure projects in Russia’s Far East, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Trutnev said on Tuesday at a Russian-South Korean business forum underway in Seoul.
“Executives of the Industrial Bank of Korea have come up with a proposal to set up a platform, a joint fund for infrastructure projects in the Far East — the projects linked to shipbuilding and construction of shipyards,” he said. “We think this is a correct and interesting proposal.”
Trutnev added to it that Russia’s own Fund for Development of the Far East would mull the prospects for a platform of this kind. He mentioned the Koreans’ readiness to invest $1 billion in that fund.
“You know perfectly well the Russian Far East is somewhat behind the European regions of the country and this stems in a big measure from the underdeveloped infrastructure there,” Trutnev said.
“President Putin has given us a task to eliminate this disproportion and to start building roads, seaport and so on,” he said. “We have many prospects in that sphere.”
Also, the South Korean side is showing interest in using the Northern Sea Route, which makes it possible to cut down the haulage time between regional countries and Europe.