Wen urges SCO to connect infrastructure

BISHKEK - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao proposed Wednesday that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) make the connection of regional infrastructure its top priority.

The work should be reasoned and programmed scientifically, make full play of the principal function of enterprises, and be run by the market to ensure quality and efficiency, Wen said in a speech at the 11th SCO prime ministers' meeting here.

China was ready to boost coordination with other SCO members to fulfill the commitment it made in June of providing 10-billion-dollar loans to other SCO members, and was mulling setting up an economic and technological cooperation fund earmarked for the region, Wen said.

He suggested developing a SCO telecom satellite service and turning the service into a platform for dealing with regional emergencies and rescues, fighting terrorism, and providing mobile telecommunications.

Wen also talked about establishing a China-SCO environment protection cooperation center to strengthen the capacity to protect the environment.

He called on SCO members to forge a stronger collective force to fight the "three evil forces", drug trafficking and cross-border organized crime, set up a disaster warning and rescue center, and actively carry out food cooperation.

In his speech, Wen spoke highly of the SCO's important role in the region over the past decade.

The SCO members had made unremitting efforts to promote regional economic development, to improve people's lives, and to build  people-to-people friendship, Wen said.

The regional group, as a growing family and with a significantly increasing influence, had become a strategic carrier for safeguarding regional peace and stability and promoting common development, he said.

With an eye to the SCO's second decade, Wen hoped SCO members could carry forward the "Shanghai Spirit," seize opportunities firmly, and make joint efforts to create a broader outlook for cooperation.

Wen said the international financial crisis, which had been raging for five years, had brought severe political, economic and social fallout.

Currently, the momentum of a world economic recovery was noticably weaker and the deep-level impact caused by the international financial crisis continued to spill over to the Central Asian region, Wen said.

The Chinese premier called on SCO members to beef up solidarity, mutual trust and support for each other, and communicate with each other closely on major issues concerning regional security and stability.

The meeting, chaired by Kyrgyz Prime Minister Zhantoro Satybaldiyev, was attended by leaders from the six SCO member states, China, Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, and representatives from five observer states, India, Mongolia, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, plus delegates of the Commonwealth of Independent States  (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Community (EEC).

The meeting designated Uzbekistan as the host of the SCO prime ministers' meeting in 2013.