CHINA / National
Economic, energy co-op focus of SCO PMs' meeting
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2006-09-17 09:10
DUSHANBE -- The heads of government from the six member states of the
Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) gathered in Tajikistan's capital
on Friday to discuss and delineate their economic and energy cooperation.
At the fifth annual meeting, the leaders pledged to implement the
consensus reached in the 2006 SCO summit, held in June in Shanghai, the
regional organization's birthplace.
Heads of the six member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organization (SCO), heads from the four observer countries of SCO, and
SCO Secretary-General pose for a group photo in Dushanbe, Sept. 15, 2006.
The fifth SCO prime ministers' meeting held here on Friday.[Xinhua]
The six heads of government are Kazakh Prime Minister Daniyal Akhmetov,
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Kyrgyz Prime Minister FeliksKulov, Russian
Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov, Tajik Prime Minister Akil Akilov and
Ukzbek Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, who arrived here late Thursday, said boosting
economic cooperation had become a consensus of all sides.
"After years of effort, we have set up the major goals and priority areas
for economic cooperation, formulated a well-grounded legal basis, and set
up multi-faceted cooperative mechanisms and channels," Wen told the
meeting.
Owing to sharp differences in legislature, policy-making, fund shortage
and weak infrastructure, economic cooperation had been somehow hindered,
Wen said.
To address the problem, Wen suggested the launching of projects which
could network more than one side and bring benefits for all.
China has pledged to expand its trade with other SCO members from the
current 40 billion U.S. dollars to 80, even 100 billion dollars in 2010.
A joint communique issued after the meeting revealed that all sides had
agreed to set energy, transportation and telecommunications as their
priorities for cooperation.
To address the energy concerns, the member states have agreed to launch
an energy working group.
The working group, along with SCO's Secretariat, was ordered to study the
possibility of establishing an SCO energy club, the joint communique said.
Kazakhstan and Russia will table their proposal to hold a meeting of the
heads of energy departments from SCO members in 2007.
Another bottleneck for SCO cooperation is fund shortage. The problem
should be resolved "by multiple channels," Premier Wen suggested.
He urged the utilization of the SCO inter-bank union and the raising of
funds from the market when launching large projects. Cooperation between
SCO members and international financial institutions, such as the Asian
Development Bank, should also be promoted, he said.
From within, all SCO members agreed to "simplify administrative and
customs procedures for cross-border transport within the SCO member
states," they said in the joint communique.
The prime ministers urged their governments, enterprises and financial
institutions to use the SCO platform to advance communications within the
organization and with the outside commercial and social circles.
The SCO, a regional organization founded in June, 2001, now groups China,
Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, with Pakistan,
Mongolia, Iran and India holding observer status.
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