DUSHANBE, October 14, 2009, Asia-Plus — Tajik Prime Minister Oqil Oqilov jointed hi counterparts from other member nations of the Shanghai cooperation Organization (SCO) at the 8th meeting of the SCO council of prime ministers that opened in Beijing, China today.
According to the SCO Secretariat, greater practical economic and cultural cooperation is a major topic on the agenda of the meeting that is being chaired by Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and attended by his counterparts from Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as representatives from the SCO observer nations and Afghanistan.
In a series of closed-door discussions, the leaders will mainly focus on how to deepen economic and cultural pragmatic cooperation against the background of international and regional challenges.
They will review progress in economic and cultural cooperation since the 7th prime ministers” meeting in Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, last October. The SCO prime ministers would also analyze international and regional situations and draw up plans for the priorities of future work based on the consensus reached at the annual summit of the SCO in Russia”s Yekaterinburg in June.
Xinhua reports that inaugurating the meeting, Wen said that the financial crisis has brought about negative effect on the economic growth of countries in this region and various sides have reached important consensus in deepening cooperation and jointly tackling the economic downturn within the framework of the SCO.
He noted that this prime ministers” meeting provided a sound platform for various countries to conduct exchanges and decide on specific measures in related fields.
After the meeting, the prime ministers of the SCO member states will attend a ceremony for the signing of agreements and meet the media.
The SCO comprises China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Mongolia, India, Iran and Pakistan are observers to the regional organization.
