Federal Minister for Commerce Syed Naveed Qamar Thursday emphasized the creation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Development Bank and the SCO Development Fund along with developing a draft roadmap on the gradual increase of the share of national currencies in reciprocal payments by the interested member states.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Secretary-General Ambassador Zhang Ming met with Federal Minister for Commerce at the Ministry of Commerce.

The Secretary-General expressed his views on a broad range of international and regional development issues and discussed trade, economic, cultural, and humanitarian cooperation in the SCO space.

The commerce minister showed his keen interest in the importance of joint promotion of entrepreneurial initiatives in the field of micro, small and medium-sized businesses and intraregional cooperation.

The minister endorsed the importance of the SCO’s initiatives on promoting interaction in the development of a new type of international relations in the spirit of mutual respect, justice, equality, and mutually beneficial cooperation.

He hoped that the SCO Member States would continue developing cooperation in the fields of politics and security, trade, economy, finance investment, as well as cultural and humanitarian ties towards a peaceful, safe, prosperous, and ecologically friendly region.

During the meeting, the importance of effectively using the potentials of the multilateral trade and economic cooperation created during the process of the SCO’s activities was discussed. It was reaffirmed that SCO must consider the initiatives to develop and adopt an Economic Development Strategy for the SCO Region.

The minister appreciated the initiatives of SCO like financial institutions and development institutions under the SCO Interbank Consortium (SCO IBC) which are aimed at containing the growing challenges and restoring the stability of the global economy through effective implementation.

Source: Pro Pakistan