Economic cooperation to be highlighted at SCO Summit

BEIJING - The member states of Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are busy formulating a document set to facilitate transportation in the area in the upcoming  summit, which attaches great importance to economic cooperation, SCO Secretary-General Muratbek Imanaliev said in a recent interview.

The SCO was planning to set up financing guarantee mechanisms and was considering proposals to establish a special account and development bank, as put forward by Russia and China respectively, he said.

The 12th Meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States of the SCO would be held in Beijing from June 6 to 7, during which the mid-term development strategy plan of the organization, proposed by China, was expected to be approved, Imanaliev said.

This year marks the beginning of the second decade of the SCO. The development plan, which touched on issues of regional cooperation on security, economy, trade, culture and education as well as international exchange, was of great importance to the SCO development in the next decade, he said.

Providing solutions to a series of compelling regional and international issues required the joint endeavors of all SCO member states, he said.

The SCO would adhere to the principle of openness and actively carry out cooperation with other international organizations on pressing global issues, he said.

The SCO was founded in Shanghai on June 15, 2001, and currently has six full members -- China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Mongolia, Iran, Pakistan and India are four observer states, and its dialogue partners include Belarus and Sri Lanka.