DUSHANBE, February 21, 2011, Asia-Plus — The SCO Interbank Consortium, which is non-governmental institution of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), will meet in Almaty, Kazakhstan on February 22.
Tajikistan is represented at the SCO Interbank Consortium by Amonatbonk (Tajikistan’s savings bank). The source at Amonatbonk says the issue of establishment of the SCO Bank is a major topic of tomorrow’s meeting.
The meeting will also consider issues related to creating mechanisms of guarantee and insurance of investments, involving financial institutions of the SCO member nations in the SCO Interbank Consortium, sharing experience, training personnel and launching the SCO Interbank Consortium website, he added.
We will recall that Russian media outlets reported in early January that China plans to invest 8 billion U.S. dollars to establish the SCO Development Bank with total investment of US$10 billion, and the other SCO member nations, including Russia, will cover the remaining US$2 billion.
The purpose of establishing the bank is to support the multilateral trade and economic cooperation within the SCO area, and the cooperation areas involve the development of energy and resources as well as infrastructure construction. Reportedly, the SCO Development Bank will be set up with reference to the framework of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. However, the plans have not been finalized yet.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is an intergovernmental mutual-security organization which was founded in 2001 by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Except for Uzbekistan, the other countries had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996; after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the organization.
The SCO Interbank Consortium was established on October 26, 2005 to support regional economic cooperation. The SCO Interbank Consortium members now include representatives from China State Bank, Kazakhstan Development Bank, Kyrgyzstan’s RSK Bank, Russia’s Vnesheconombank, Tajikistan’s Amonatbonk, and Uzbekistan’s National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity.
