Vice-premier calls for SCO exchanges

Member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization should work together to promote trade and investment exchanges, so as to stabilize regional economic growth amid global uncertainties, Vice-Premier Li Keqiang said on Thursday.

"The recovery of the global economy still faces severe challenges (SCO) member countries should strengthen coordination in macro policies, and intensify cooperation within international organizations to protect common benefits," the vice-premier said.

Meanwhile, Li said, China still possesses huge potential for development. The country will continue improving its economic regulations, seek an economic transformation amid steady development and contribute to global economic growth, he said.

Li was speaking to finance ministers and central bank governors of SCO member countries - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan - who were in Beijing for a meeting before the organization's Beijing Summit.

The participants agreed that the global economic recovery remains weak because of debt problems, unemployment and insufficient growth faced by developing countries.

The fluctuation of commodity prices and increasing trade protectionism also pose challenges to the growth of the global economy, according to a joint statement by the ministers published on the website of Ministry of Finance.

In response to these challenges, member countries are considering establishing an SCO Growth Fund and SCO Development Bank, according to the statement.

"The delegates have also agreed to explore multilateral financial cooperation, and enlarge the settlement in home currencies in bilateral trade, so as to boost regional trade and investment, and enhance the ability to withstand external impact," the statement said.

Ten years after its establishment in 2001, SCO member countries have a population of 1.5 billion. Member countries had a combined GDP of around $7.6 trillion in 2011, and trade volume reached $90 billion.

According to Sun Ping, vice-president of the Export-Import Bank of China, China's investments to the other five member countries accumulated to nearly $6 billion by 2011, while the investments in China from the other member countries reached $2 billion.

However, due to disparities in wealth, resources and technologies among the six member countries, establishing a sustainable economic cooperation benefiting all member country citizens would be a challenging task, according to Sun Zhuangzhi, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

For instance, "the financing problem has been a bottleneck for the cooperative projects, because of the ongoing global financial crisis and lack of financing channels", Sun Zhuangzhi was quoted by Xinhua News Agency as saying.

Chen Fengying, director of the Institute of World Economic Studies under the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, views the establishment of an SCO Development Bank as an important step in the internationalization of the RMB, but she warned the process may face opposition from the US dollar, which is the current base currency in global trade.

In the future, the SCO FTA may include more countries to the west, such as Afghanistan and India, Chen said.

Contact the writers at weitian@chinadaily.com.cn and cuihaipei@chinadaily.com.cn.