Terming greater cooperation among regional countries crucial for development and prosperity, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani on Monday stressed for enhancing trade, energy and road links, and proposed a five-point development plan based on the SCO-sponsored intra-regional and inter-regional cooperation in trade, building infrastructure and power links.
The development plan included arranging finance and initiation of work on electricity transmission lines; taking concrete measures to start TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) and Iran-Pakistan-India gas line projects; setting up a preferential and if possible a free trade zone in the SCO region; cooperation in the financial and banking sectors; and relaxation of visa regimes for diplomats, officials and businessmen, said Prime Minister Gilani while addressing the 10th meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) held in this historical city of Russia.
Prime Minister Gilani represented Pakistan as an observer state at the SCO forum, and was joined by the leadership of SCO member states, including Russia, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, at the Constantine Palace here. The prime minister said that Pakistan attached importance to SCO and believed that this organization had capacity and resolve to overcome the most pressing challenges of times. He said that SCO had enormous potential to promote regional economic cooperation in a holistic manner.
He mentioned that terrorism, extremism, drugs and syndicate crime were confronting societies, states and the region. He said that pervasive global economic and financial crisis, unemployment and socio-economic stress were making the picture bleak. He said though daunting but these challenges could be surmounted by developing a cohesive response based on clarity and firm conviction for working together.
He reiterated Pakistan’s desire for a full SCO membership and expressed gratitude to all members for their support to this request. Gilani termed security and development as important regional issues, and said that the challenges of reconciliation, reconstruction and revival of Afghan polity needed to be addressed objectively. He welcomed SCO’s role and efforts in this regard.
Gilani stressed greater political will and concrete steps to fully realize the vision of SCO. Russian Premier Vladimir Putin announced financing of 0.5 billion dollars for the CASA-1000 that would ensure power transmission from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to Pakistan and Afghanistan. He also called for investment flows to develop national economies.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao highlighted SCO’s role in eliminating terrorism, extremism and separatism and said the organization needed to withstand the changes in international scenario. He supported Pakistan’s proposal of building cross-border road links. He suggested policy support for free flow of goods, establishment of a seed bank for cooperation on agriculture and expansion in currency swap. Kyrgyz Deputy Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov suggested for setting up SCO Development Bank and Business Council of SCO to address challenges of global economy.
