The upcoming Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Russia's Far Eastern city of Vladivostok will help the country strengthen trade ties with Asian partners, a high-ranking official said Tuesday.

To make the national economy depend less on raw materials and grow more vigorously, Russia needs to diversify its economic structure and forge closer ties with countries in the Asia-Pacific region, First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov told reporters.

The European Union (EU) remains Russia's largest trade partner in the first half of 2012 and accounts for 50 percent of Russia's foreign trade, Shuvalov said, adding the APEC forum would facilitate "a shift of trade balance" toward Moscow's Eastern partners.

The prospective partners include China, Japan, South Korea and the United States, as well as other members of the APEC bloc, Shuvalov said.

"Our trade potential with these countries is underdeveloped, we are barely using a quarter of it. We will continue working with the EU, but we need to be doing as much with APEC members," said the official.

Russia needs to stand on two feet, European and Asian, to grow rapidly in the future, Shuvalov added.

The APEC summit will bring more opportunities to Vladivostok and the Primorye Territory, as the government has poured billions of U.S. dollars into infrastructure and socio-economic development projects in the region, said the official. "In fact, we are creating an investment capital of the Far East today," Shuvalov said.

Delegations of the APEC members and business leaders are expected to attend the conferences slated for Sept. 2 to 9. This will be the first time for Russia to host the top-level gatherings.

Russia joined APEC in 1998 and has constantly participated in the bloc's annual summit of economic leaders since 1999.