Tajikistan presented more than 300 investment projects at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Business Day in Urumqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) on September 2, according to Tajikistan's Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI), Asia-Plus reported.
The projects target spheres like energy, geology, metallurgy, engineering industry, mining, health care, transportation, agriculture, as well as light, electrotechnical, food and processing industries, the source said.
According to him, many of companies participating in the event expressed interest in cooperating with Tajik enterprises.
In the meantime, China Daily reports that high-ranking officials from the SCO member nations and experts on September 2 called for the establishment of a massive free-trade area (FTA) across the region to facilitate trade among one-fourth of the world's population.
The SCO Business Day was a branch of the ongoing first China-Eurasia Expo, which was launched on September 1 in Urumqi.
SCO Secretary-General Muratbek Imanaliyev pledged that the organization will "play an active role in eliminating barriers to cooperation, facilitating trade and investment and developing connections in the region," adding that this is a priority for the SCO. He also invited observer states and SCO dialogue partners to become involved in the effort.
China Daily quoted Tajik Minister of Economic Development and Trade Farrukh Hamraliyev as saying, "Beijing has made a very sagacious decision to establish several free-trade zones in Xinjiang." "Tajikistan will join in the future to enable more privately owned Tajik enterprises to invest in Xinjiang," said he. "We plan to increase the bilateral trade volume fourfold within the next five years, of which 70 percent will come from trade between Tajikistan and Xinjiang."