Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Mr Kozak, you have visited the Far East-in particular, to see preparations for the APEC summit. What are your impressions?

Dmitry Kozak: Vladivostok has been appointed centre of the APEC and its summit venue. The city has a strong development programme. On June 25, I joined representatives of all government contractors-there are nine for today-to see all summit projects and sites. These projects will later become the material basis for the Pacific Research and Education Centre.

We have bypassed many formalities (I hope we shall attend to them later) to start construction of a bridge across the Bosfor Vostochny Strait. Workers and machinery are already on the site, and temporary housing for the builders is under construction.

To draw relevant urban development papers is the key issue now so that construction in Russky Island and reconstruction of the Vladivostok municipal economy become parts of a system. The goal is to finish all work on the general city outlay by September 1. Russky Island is part of the plan. All documents must meet the deadline on the island layout concerning the placement of Pacific Centre buildings and dual purpose projects that will first come as summit venues and later house the centre.

The Russian Academy of Sciences, the Regional Development Ministry and the Education and Science Ministry have together established an ad hoc team in conformity with a decision made in May. The team is working at the concept of Pacific Research and Education Centre development after 2012.

I approved the design specification up to 2012 two weeks ago. It has been coordinated with the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Education and Science Ministry. The Vladivostok subprogramme of the development programme for the Russian Far East has been amended according to the specification, and the amendments have been coordinated with all the relevant offices. We will forward the programme to the Government soon. Its financing has been coordinated with the Finance and Economic Development ministries.

The job is a real challenge-many projects are very complicated and there is not much time. But we will cope if we work in a close team. As for problems...

Vladimir Putin: One moment. You said: "We have bypassed many formalities (to attend to them later) to start construction." I hope this is an exception. All right? All formalities must be ready in due time to prevent unpleasant surprises later.

Dmitry Kozak: This is a real exception. It concerns only one project. Besides, we did not start the job before design documents were ready and the state expertise approved them. Builders appeared on the site only after that, on May 20.

Vladimir Putin: You started talking about problems.

Dmitry Kozak: Corporate teamwork is the main problem. There are nine government contractors for construction as such, and thrice as many organisations responsible for coordinating every project. Here we really need smooth teamwork of all federal executive bodies, and the regional and Vladivostok municipal administrations. This was a fruitful visit, I think-we have made necessary decisions for all fields where there were disputes and disunity. Practical assignments on every issue and every project alone take seven pages in small lettering.