President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends, colleagues, students, professors,
As you know, the APEC summit has just ended. This big international event was held here at the Far East Federal University’s new campus.
The construction work, as you know, went on for three years and has given the staff and students, and indeed the whole country, what is probably one of the best university campuses in the world. It has been a long time since Russia carried out a construction project of such scale and quality, and for such a purpose. This project can probably compare only with the creation of the Siberian Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as I’m sure the representatives of the Academy of Sciences present today will confirm.
I am sure you will like this new campus. But the biggest work of all depends on the staff and students present today, and on the future generations of staff and students. We are counting on you to make this university truly an intellectual development centre for the entire Russian Far East and a magnet and centre of gravity not just for Russian specialists but also for our neighbours from this very important part of the world. We have just spent these last two days talking about how important this region is.
I want to repeat here that you live in a region that has immense development potential. The Asia-Pacific region will show its full strength and potential over the coming decades and capitalise on its many advantages. It will be a global economic leader, and as its economic strength grows, geopolitical shifts will follow.
When this project began, it was my hope right from the outset that we would open a new stage in the Far East’s development with the creation of this kind of intellectual centre.
I wish you success and congratulate you on this big event. And now, as is tradition on such occasions, let me present you with the symbolic key to the new campus.
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