DUSHANBE, June 16, 2009, Asia-Plus — Speaking at a SCO summit in Yekaterinburg, Tajik President Emomali Rahmon mainly dwelled on the problems resulting from the global financial crisis and ways to come out of the crisis.
“Trust in global business and free market has been seriously shaken,” noted Tajik leader, “Millions of people in our countries have lost jobs. People trust in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and our collective response to the crisis may be only deepening confidence and expansion of cooperation within the framework of the Organization. Deep integration of political, economic and humanitarian resources will create necessary conditions for solving the problems.”
Rahmon noted that many problems of the Eurasian region had a trans-border character and they could be solved only through combination of efforts with laying special stress on confidential relations and mutually beneficial cooperation.
According to him, the global economic crisis has affected all the member nations of the SCO. “In Tajikistan, the gross domestic product growth for January-March 2009 was 3.5 percent, which is almost three times fewer in comparison with average annual indices of the past several years,” said Rahmon, “The government has developed and launched an anti-crisis program of actions and they have already begun yielding the first encouraging results, however, they are not enough. It is obvious that measures taken at the national level should be supported by collective experience of other member nations of the SCO, in particular China and Russia. It is also necessary to combine efforts to come out of the crisis. This will comply with the Shanghai agreement and the Organization’s tasks.” Rahmon offered to hold a meeting of the SCO finance ministers and central bank heads to seek mutually acceptable approaches to solve these problems.
He added that the SCO member nations should show consolidated approach in the transportation sector as well. “The transit potential of the Eurasian region is great and it is in our common interest to use it in full through speeding up construction of transcontinental highways, providing access to southern ports in the Indian Ocean and Arabian Sea through trans-Afghan corridor, creating new opportunities for development of international trade, encouraging economic growth within the SCO area,” Tajik president said. “In this connection, it is necessary to complete negotiating process and sign an agreement on creation of favorable conditions for international automotive transportation.”
Rahmon also pointed to the necessity of expansion of cooperation in the field of agriculture.
On the security problems, Tajik leader noted that signing of SCO convention against terrorism would provide entry to new level of cooperation in that field. Our task is to maintain the Organization’s ability to counter real threat emanating from three evils. “In the foreseeable future, these threats will remain intact and further aggravation of them cannot be ruled out,” he said.
