A certain introduction into the exploration and understanding of the East, a complicated system of intricacies and interconnections between many countries of this region, its culture and business processes, has been yet another public lecture during 'Governor's reading' project today, on December 7.
'Real orientalists know well that there is no unified East like there is no any monolithic West. Both in the East and in the West there are huge contradictions, relationship peculiarities between different countries', stated the meeting moderator Svyatoslav Kaspe. According to him, Russia should explore this and take it into account when building relationships with Eastern developing economies.
Introducing the discussion the head of the region Vladimir Yakushev mentioned that Tyumen is often called the most European city in Siberia, however, the opposite is also true - Tyumen is the most Siberian city of Europe which was moved to the East by its historical destiny.
'This means that what is happening in the East requires our close attention - both the coming up opportunities and the emerging risks. Either will go through us. And we should be ready to any switch, we should be able to foresee them and get ready. The East is changing rapidly - China, Japan, India, Philippines, South Korea and other countries. Every change affects Russia, and naturally Tyumen, this or that way. We have no right to stay aloof from the global development trends. On the contrary, we should offer our version of understanding in advance. Therefore, choosing a topic for the Governor's Reading this year we asked ourselves a question: where would the wind from the East blow? And we invited a person whose opinion shall be at least taken for consideration', informed Vladimir Yakushev.
The guest star was a well-known orientalist, Professor of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia Yury Tavrovsky. He worked a lot in the international mass media including Japan and China. He was one of political coordinators in Soviet information presence in Asia-Pacific Region, author of numerous articles, books, analytical programmes and films including the first monograph in the world about the current leader of China Xi Jinping.
In his opening speech Yury Tavrovsky stressed that he considers Tyumen one of the regions that support Russia in whole, and Tyumen people are characterised by high intellectual and organizational level.
In his report he gave a brief characteristic of the current state of affairs in Eastern countries. He paid special attention to China, its history and philosophy, and mentioned in particular that actually it's the only country which has a long-term strategic plan until 2078. He also shared that the overall peculiarity of the Southern-Pacific countries was the tendency to protect their national interest.
Yury Tavrovsky analised the mindset of the current PRC leader and his team which defines the external and internal policy of the country. It is based on three key principles: people power, national independence and people welfare. One of the key points of the current economic reforms was orientation not only on external but also internal market so that it became self-reliant. Also, Yury Tavrovsky identified one of the global programmes and initiatives of China to restore the Great Silk Road and Maritime Silk Road in broader sense. Today, the development in this direction is quite slow. According to him, the reason is, the financial and legal mechanisms in two countries don't coincide. This process is also slowed down by the lack of qualified Russian specialists in Chinese legislature, economy and banking. Russia is yet developing this experience and building the relationships.
Speaking about the key peculiarities of Chinese doing business he mentioned that they will never do any charity or harm their own business. Moreover, signing a contract and project implementation often require long negotiations.
Summing up the discussion the Governor mentioned that today there are steps towards each other in Russia and Eastern countries but still we speak different languages, have different cultures, positions, standards, approaches in various spheres and the harmonizing work has just started. 'We are developing the cooperation experience, signing first contracts. Time will pass and we'll learn all this. The window of opportunities has a good prospects to become broader', assured Vladimir Yakushev stressing that also the Tyumen region with Sabetta sea port and the development of the Northern Sea Route, has broad prospects to expand export. The head of the region specially emphasized the experience of PRC in process standardization.
'Process standardization allows for time and resources economizing, improves the work efficiency especially in the government bodies. Commercial companies are also introducing this today,' told the Governor and added that we have a lot of reserves in this direction. Yet the standardization culture is not in place and we are in the beginning of our way.
Source: Press service of the Governor of the Tyumen region