ECONOMIC COOPERATION YIELDS FRUITS

Economic cooperation among SCO members has already yielded fruitful results, said Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng, citing increasing trade within the SCO, trade liberalization and infrastructure upgrading.

Grouping China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the SCO covers a total area of 30.2 million square km, with a combined population of 1.53 billion.

Statistics showed the total economic output of SCO members topped 10 trillion U.S. dollars in 2012. China is currently the largest trade partner to both Russia and Kazakhstan, and the second largest to Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan.

Dedicated to maintaining regional security and promoting common development, the SCO adheres to the Spirit of Shanghai, which features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for cultural diversity and pursuit of common development.

The SCO has made remarkable achievements in regional economic cooperation. With trade scale grown and cooperation mechanism established, member states also witnessed creation of the Entrepreneurs Committee and the Inter-bank Association as well as a batch of infrastructure projects in energy, traffic and telecom fields.

Over the past 12 years, SCO member states have made efforts to implement a long-term multilateral economic and trade cooperation program and a list of measures for advancing multilateral project cooperation between 2012 and 2016, among other cooperation documents.

Progress has been made in areas of finance, transportation, energy, agriculture, customs and technology, said Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping.

Gao Yusheng, former Chinese ambassador to Uzbekistan, said the upcoming prime ministers' meeting has two tasks: to implement the Bishkek consensus, and to promote projects aimed to improve inter-connectivity in transport, energy and telecommunications.

The SCO has entered into the second decade since its founding in 2001. The first decade of the SCO can be considered as a start-up period, while in the second decade, the organization should mainly seek practical development, said Chen Yurong, a senior research fellow at the China Institute of International Studies.