13th SCO Council of External Trade and Economy Ministers Meeting: The Results

On November 19, the 13th SCO Council of External Trade and Economy Ministers Meeting was held in Astana, Kazakhstan. The meeting was chaired by Kazakhstan's Minister of National Economy Yerbolat Dosayev.

The meeting was attended by Chinese Assistant Minister of Commerce Tong Daochi, Head of the Department for External Economic Activity and Integration at the Kyrgyzstan's Ministry of Economy Tatyana Rets, Russian Deputy Minister of Economic Development Alexei Likhachyov, Tajikistan's Minister of Economic Development and Trade Sharif Rakhimzoda and Uzbekistan's First Deputy Minister of External Economic Activity, Investment and Trade Ibrokhim Ergashev. Other participants in the meeting included SCO Secretary-General Dmitry Mezentsev, SCO Business Council Executive Secretary Sergei Kanavsky and the First Deputy Board Chairman of Tajikistan's State Savings Bank Amonatbonk, Rukhullo Khakimzoda.

The agenda for the meeting included a wide range of issues related to the promotion of regional cooperation between the SCO member states, and the heads of the delegations delivered reports on ways to achieve this. Representatives of the SCO Secretariat spoke about progress in implementing the SCO Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation Programme and submitted the 2012-2016 SCO Action Plan for Project Development Activities. Other reports highlighted the performance of the Business Council and the SCO Interbank Consortium in 2013 and 2014.

Meeting participants appreciated the efforts to implement the agreements reached at the SCO Heads of State Council and the SCO Heads of Government Council meetings since the last meeting of October 23, 2013 held in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, which was devoted to the promotion of trade and economic cooperation and cooperation in investment activities. The parties agreed to continue with their efforts to implement the SCO Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation Programme and the 2012-2016 SCO Action Plan for Project Development Activities with a focus on investment projects in specific areas of cooperation.

In addition, an agreement was reached to submit, under the established procedure, the following issues for consideration at the next meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government Meeting to be held in Astana, Kazakhstan on December 14-15, 2014:
- signing a memorandum of cooperation in developing and using a risk-management system by the SCO customs services; and
- approving the SCO Secretariat's report on the progress of implementing the SCO Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation Programme.

The 14th SCO Council of External Trade and Economy Ministers Meeting will be held in China in 2015.