2015年CRI Belt and Road Initiative Brings New Opportunity for SCO Members

Economic cooperation tops the agenda during the SCO meeting.

Zhang Jianping, a senior official from the National Development and Reform Commission, says SCO members have made progress in infrastructure 1 construction and industrial capacity cooperation.

"China and Russia have started comprehensive cooperation in industrial capacity. For example, they jointly 3 developed aircraft for commercial use. They have launched joint 2 research on high-speed rail construction in Russia. Through a series of high-level talks, China and Kazakhstan have a wide range of cooperation in expanding industrial capacity. A good example for cooperation of SCO members is that TBEA, a major transformer provider in China, is helping 4 central Asian countries in long-distance electricity transmission."

Statistics show that the trade volume between China and other SCO member countries reached 130 billion US dollars in 2014, ten times the level of 2001 when the organization was founded.

China's investment in the SCO member countries has exceeded 70 billion US dollars, while the investment from SCO members to China has exceeded 1 billion US dollars.

Economic cooperation also helps growth in other areas including the well-being 5 of residents, culture and tourism.

Sun Zhuangzhi, director of the SCO Research Center with Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the SCO provides a platform for further cooperation among countries along the Belt and Road initiative.

"The Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Silk Road Economic Belt will not only bring prosperity to the region but also take economic cooperation between member countries to a higher level."

The Belt and Road Initiative was put forward by Chinese President Xi Jinping during a visit to Kazakhstan in 2013, and has since witnessed tangible 6 commitments by China, including the launch last year of a New Silk Road Fund worth 40 billion U.S. dollars.

During an SCO summit in Russia's Ufa in July, President Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to regard the SCO as an important platform to dovetail the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative and the Russian-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

The SCO secretariat-general of the Mezentsev says the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative will benefit countries in the Eurasian areas.

He says it's important for the countries along the route of the Belt and Road initiative to find new development strategies.

"The proposal of the Silk Road Economic Belt initiative is a macroscopic concept. It takes future development into consideration. So next, we have a lot to do to coordinate 7 under the initiative and the long-term development strategy of SCO member countries. We take the long-term goal of development of related countries into consideration."

The two-day SCO prime ministers' meeting is set to conclude on Tuesday.

For CRI, I'm Guo Yan.