On the 11th of September 2018 Russia-ASEAN Business Council and the Roscongress Foundation within the framework of the Eastern Economic Forum (EEF-2018) conducted Russia-ASEAN business dialogue in Vladivostok (Russia). The event was held with the support of MGIMO-University and ASEAN Center at MGIMO. The business dialogue was attended by more than 100 representatives of government bodies and business circles of ASEAN member states. The event was also attended by leaders of major Russian companies and representatives of government authorities of Russia. Minister of Planning and Investment of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Nguyen Ti Dung, Vice Minister of Trade of the Kingdom of Thailand Sakon Varanuvatana, Vice President of the Russian CCI Vladimir Padalko, Executive Director of SIBUR LLC Sergey Komyshan, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of the Philippines to the Russian Federation Carlos Sorreta Acting Governor of the Kemerovo Region Sergey Tsivilev and others delivered their speeches at the panel of Russia-ASEAN business Dialogue . The meeting was moderated by Ivan Polyakov, Chairman of the Russia-ASEAN Business Council, CEO of Interstate corporation for development. Within the business dialogue the participants discussed the problems and challenges facing the development of mutually beneficial economic cooperation between Russia and ASEAN, presented bilateral cooperation projects, and also told proposals for developing effective cooperation between Russia and ASEAN. Ivan Polyakov in his opening remarks noted that according to the results of 2017, the foreign trade turnover of Russia with the ASEAN countries grew by more than 35% and amounted to 18.3 billion dollars. “At the same time, it is worth noting that with a high level of political interaction, the potential of trade, economic and investment cooperation between Russia and ASEAN countries is not fully used,” the Chairman of the Business Council emphasized. The Minister of Planning and Investment of Vietnam, Ti Nguyeng Dung, spoke about the successful development of bilateral projects, so, according to him, there are 23 Vietnamese projects that have registered their activities, with a total investment of about $ 2.9 billion in Russia. “These projects are concentrated in such areas as: oil and gas production, telecommunications, agriculture, etc. For example, Vietnam’s largest telecommunications corporation, Vietnam, has chosen Russia as a point for carrying out activities for the production of mobile equipment and research activities in the field of technology. In particular, in the Primorsky Territory, there is already a milk processing project owned by the Vietnamese corporation TH Truemilk, with a total registered investment of $ 300 billion,”said the Minister of Vietnam. Sergey Tsivilev, Acting Governor of the Kemerovo Region, noted that his region is closely integrated into the global economy. According to his speech, the main trade partners of Kuzbass are the countries of the Asia-Pacific region: China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan. But the region is interested in developing trade relations with other countries of the Asia-Pacific region. According to Tsivilev, Kuzbass and ASEAN countries can cooperate in many areas. For example, expand cooperation with Vietnam on the use of mining technologies. Kuzbass is also ready to supply flour, grain products, processed products of milk, meat, wild plants and alcohol. Vice-President of the Chamber of commerce and industry of Russia Vladimir Padalko noted that there are 2 obvious trends in the direction of ASEAN. The first is that partners, seeing the great potential of our country, are actively developing business relations with Russia, not paying attention to Western sanctions. The second - the activity of small and medium enterprises in the ASEAN direction is gaining momentum. The Vice-Minister of Trade of the Kingdom of Thailand Sakon Varanuvatana delivering the speech noted the high potential of bilateral cooperation, and also spoke about the project of creation of the Eastern Economic Corridor, which includes roads, seaports, a system of high-speed railways and air transport. “The Eastern Economic Corridor will become not only a transport hub, but also an industrial and innovative hub,” said the Thai Vice Minister with the Russia-ASEAN Business Dialogue.