BAKU, Azerbaijan, Nov. 2
By Fakhri Vakilov - Trend:
The Council of Heads of Government of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) approved the new version of the program of multilateral trade and economic cooperation until 2035 as part of a meeting within the framework of the 18th meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of Member States of the SCO in Uzbekistan’s capital Tashkent, Trend reports citing the Uzbek media.
The new program identifies priorities in the areas of trade and investment, banking and financial cooperation, transport and logistics, industry, agriculture, energy, customs, innovation, information technology, spatial development, interregional interaction, tourism, ecology and education. The old program has been in operation since 2003.
The concept of interaction between railway administrations was also approved, and a decision was made to prepare a concept for cooperation on the development of remote and rural territories in the digital era. The document is planned to be submitted to the SCO Council of Heads of State in St. Petersburg on July 22-23, 2020.
It was also decided to prepare a framework agreement between governments on the formation of an integrated transport management system, the purpose of which is to develop a unified system of interaction for all modes of transport with the introduction of modern technologies. The framework document on cooperation in the field of trade in services was approved.
In addition, a decision was signed by the SCO Council of Heads of Government on the organization’s budget for 2020. The parties also approved the report of the commission of external auditors of the SCO countries on conducting an external audit of the financial and economic activities of the SCO’s permanent bodies.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded in 2001 by the leaders of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. In 2017, the heads of state of the association signed a decision on admission of India and Pakistan to the organization. Currently, the observer countries in the SCO are Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran and Mongolia, and the partner countries are Azerbaijan, Armenia, Cambodia, Nepal, Turkey and Sri Lanka.
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