DUSHANBE, August 28, 2008, Asia-Plus — Trade and economic cooperation within the area of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is developing slowly, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev remarked at a plenary session of the SCO summit in Dushanbe on August 28.
“It is quite natural that trade and economic cooperation is taking more and more significant place in the SCO activity lately,” said the Kazakh leader, “However, an actual trade and economic partnership within the SCO area is developing slowly, despite of many signed agreements. We ought to seriously study the situation and take measures to intensify trade and economic cooperation between our countries.”
He also pointed to the necessity speeding up the work on laying appropriate legal foundation of activity of the SCO Business Council.
“We positively assess signing of a memorandum on fundamentals of partnership between the Eurasian Development Bank and the SCO Interbank Association. Adoption of this document will be an obvious example of successful interbank cooperation and will give additional opportunities for involvement of resources in crediting projects being implemented within the framework of the SCO.”
According to the Kazakh leader, establishment of the SCO Development Fund, which would allow mobilizing financial resources to promote economic integration of the countries, remains the topical task.
“According to the latest expert estimates, in case of successful economic integration in the region, the SCO states will account for up to 30 percent of the global GDP by 2020 and the trade turnover may reach $70 million in the near future,” President Nazarbayev said.
