KRASNOYARSK, Central Siberia -- The chilly relations between Tokyo and Moscow did not stop the Japanese ambassador from attending a two-day conference focusing on the obstacles and opportunities for industrial restructuring in one of Russia's most richly endowed regions.


"We know the Krasnoyarsk Krai has enormous potential with an incredible wealth of natural resources," said Japanese Ambassador Koji Wanatabe, who became the first senior Japanese envoy to visit this region, located 4,000 kilometers east of Moscow.


The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development organized the two-day event, which brought together not only Japanese businessmen and government officials but also representatives from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland and the United States.


The conference featured such topics as enterprise restructuring during privatization, policy initiatives to foster small business development on a regional level, entrepreneurship training and financing for telecommunications development.


The Krasnoyarsk region is rich in coal, timber, oil and iron-ore.


More than one-third of the region's industrial output is exported, deputy governor Vladimir Kuzmin told the conference.


According to Russian statistics, Krasnoyarsk Krai is the second most profitable region in the country, yet it is also ranks third in wage arrears to workers, said Peter Milford, a consultant who works with the Morozov Project, which helps develop business training services here.


The high cost of transporting Krasnoyarsk's raw materials has contributed to the general breakdown of industrial production in the region in the last three to four years. An OECD study showed that only one out of every three tons of coal transported by train could be used. A transportation report presented at the conference concluded that rail transport should be eventually replaced by shipping, which is cheaper.


Krasnoyarsk lies on the Yenesei River, Russia's second longest, which flows north to the Arctic.


The territory of Krasnoyarsk Krai is immense, almost 3,000 kilometers from north to south and 1,000 kilometers east to west. Three million people live in the region, 1 million of them in the capital.


Because of the distances, air travel is vital. Almost 90 airports service the region.


Today, much of the transport network is dislocated. Dmitry Skorodov, who directs a training center at the Siberian Aerospace Academy, said practically all work in Angara, a coal mining area in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, has stopped. Cheap vodka is the only way to keep the people there from packing up to leave, he said.


Krasnoyarsk was also an important center for Soviet military production, notably in telecommunications. "The big problem is that this city was based on the development of missiles, and now that the Cold War has ended they don't know what to do next," said David Wood, a British consultant familiar with this area. "All the brains are here, all the resources are here, they just don't have any money."


Enter the Japanese, perhaps. Japanese businessmen are notable by their absence in Moscow these days, but at last week's conference there were economic advisers from the Foreign Ministry in Tokyo, embassy personnel, consultants and the director of a Far East venture fund to which the Japanese have contributed $20 million.


Junichiro Miyabe, a senior economist from the Nomura Research Institute, presented a case study of the Krasnoyarsk Aluminum Enterprise at the conference. He noted that financial data was only shared by a few of the top managers. The work force is steadily declining.


The Japanese said it is time for Russians, who have experienced a harsh transitional period, to learn from the lessons of the past three years.


"The remaining part of 1995 and the first half of 1996 will be the final examination period for Russia's manufacturing enterprises," Miyabe told the conference.