SCO Business Forum focuses on connectivity

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02:24

How can Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries synergize development strategies and promote connectivity?

That’s what the SCO Business forum sought to answer.

"I suggest that member countries, SCO Business Council, chambers and associations push forward the connection of Belt & Road Initiative with development policies like the Eurasian Economic Union, and the Bright Road," Chen Zhou, vice president of the China Council for Promotion of International Trades, said at the opening ceremony.

He said he also wanted them to "make full use of each country's advantages in resources, industrial structure, technologies, talents and finance to achieve associated development."

CGTN Photo

SCO countries are building land, sea, aviation, telecom connections among each other. And Chinese companies are involved in many of the projects.

Trade between China and other SCO member countries hit 217 billion US dollars last year, compared with 12 billion dollars in 2001. Another country which saw a significant increase in trade volume is Uzbekistan.

Adkham Ikramov, chairman of Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that “by 2017, Uzbekistan had 20 million US dollars worth of trade volume with other member countries, a large increase compared to before. That trade is of great importance, and among that, small and medium-sized companies play an important role."

The forum gathered 300 trade officials, business leaders and entrepreneurs – and they all had their own takeaways.

CGTN Photo

Vadim Kukushkin, the chief representative of JSC Russian Agricultural Bank’s Beijing office, says "These meetings are like the landmark, they set the directions, we understand the directions, rules and companies could start talking about exact business.”

For Jiang Junping, chairman of WONMORE International Group of Qingdao, host city of the SCO summit, he hopes his platform could serve SCO members better. "Our cold chain food service platform in Qingdao city has cooperation ties with Russia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. It'll help promote trade among SCO member countries”, Jiang says.

Building platforms, connectivity and facilitation. Those are the main goals of the Business Forum. Participants and speakers are also expecting the policies announced at the Qingdao summit to help better achieve their business ambitions.