SCO ties closer, stronger despite global headwinds

Isaeva Vladimirovna, Kyrgyzstan's deputy minister of economy and commerce, said her country is willing to cooperate with other SCO members to grow digital trade and build the country into a digital hub in Central Asia in the coming years.

Zhang Ming, secretary-general of the SCO, said that alongside SCO countries' rich human and financial resources, raw materials and technologies, digital trade will help them adapt to and grasp the trend of digitalization, accelerate COVIDrelated recovery and enhance economic resilience.

China's foreign trade with SCO member countries rose 40 percent year-on-year to $343.3 billion in 2021, reaching a record high－28 times larger than that of 2001 when the organization was established, said the Ministry of Commerce.

China's total investment in other SCO member states exceeded $70 billion. Contracted projects by Chinese companies in other member states were valued above $290 billion by the end of July 2021.

Because the economic growth of many SCO members relies heavily on trade in commodities and agricultural products, it will be practical for related companies to work with companies in China to further improve the structure of trade and deepen cooperation on environmental protection, climate change, biodiversity conservation and the low-carbon economy, said Zhang Shaogang, vice-chairman of the Beijing-based China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

They also need to revitalize trade and investment, as well as enhance openness and interconnectivity, especially when the global economy is suffering from a massive pandemic-induced contraction and geopolitical and geoeconomic headwinds, said Zhou Mi, a senior researcher at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing.

He said that the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative will continue to play a vital role in fueling SCO countries' business growth, as many of them have already integrated the BRI with regional cooperation programs and national development plans.

In addition to drawing up a roadmap for expanding settlement in national currencies to provide better financial services for collaboration on major projects, SCO members should continue to work together to fight the pandemic in various areas, and advance collaboration in services, in particular in logistics, education and green and smart infrastructure development, Zhou said.

Eager to boost the group's growth, China established the China-SCO Local Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Area in Qingdao, Shandong province in 2018.

The area allows investing businesses from SCO countries to work together in one specific location and to share technologies, expertise and product types to develop new areas of collaboration and manufacturing processes, or a type of SCO-incubator.