Moscow, Sep 6 (IANS/RIA Novosti): Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed the importance of the Asia-Pacific region for his country's development.

Ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to take place in the country's far eastern port city of Vladivostok, Putin wrote in an article for the Wall Street Journal Asia: "Russia has long been an intrinsic part of the Asian-Pacific region."

"We view this dynamic region as the most important factor for the successful future of the whole country, as well as development of Siberia and the far east."

The 21-nation APEC summit that began Sep 5 will go on till Sep 9.

Putin highlighted Russia's investment in its far east in his "Vladivostok 2012: Russian agenda for the APEC Forum" article.

"We are already building modern ports in the Russian far east, modernising the transportation and shipment infrastructure, and improving national customs and administrative procedures," he wrote.

The implementation of these projects "will increase traffic flow between Europe and the Asian-Pacific region via Russia's territory no less than fivefold by 2020", he added.