November 25, 2007 (LPAC)--At a conference Nov. 21 on Sakhalin Island, in the far east of Russia, policy makers discussed the necessity of linking up this region with the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido, and with the Russian mainland and entire Eurasian transportation grid. First Vice-Governor Konstantin Stroganov of the Sakhalin Region addressed the prospects for construction of an infrastructure link between the island and the Russian mainland. Held under the title "Projects As the Basis for a Sakhalin Break-Through: From Initiatives for Survival, to Programs for Development," the meeting was dubbed by Stroganov a "brain-storming session" for the government officials, local activists, scientists, and businessmen who took part.

Prof. Yuri Gromyko, director of the Institute for Advanced Studies, keynoted the Sakhalin conference. He argued that the future of Sakhalin is linked not only, and not primarily, with the oil and gas industries that are currently the engine of the island's economy, but rather with "demonstration of the necessity of building a transcontinental bridge, which will connect Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the mainland." His remarks were quoted in a Regnum.ru dispatch about the conference.

"If these plans are implemented in the context of bringing in new technologies," Gromyko said, "it will become possible to raise the quality and standard of living to the level of countries in Western Europe."