On 4 April 2019 in Jinan, the SCO Ambassadors Club headed by SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov held a meeting with Liu Jiayi, Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China.
The meeting focused on the prospects of cooperation between the SCO member states and the Shandong Province.
Liu Jiayi greeted the high-ranking guests from the SCO member states and introduced the delegation of the ‘Shanghai eight' to the province's history and cultural traditions, socioeconomic development, investment climate and government support measures that the province has on offer for foreign investors.
The Secretary of the Shandong Provincial Committee noted the importance of holding the historic SCO summit in Qingdao in June 2018.
He said that currently the Shandong Province is largely involved in the Chinese President Xi Jinping's Belt and Road initiative as well as the agreements reached at the SCO summit in Qingdao. The province is also providing support with the development of the China-SCO pilot zone of regional trade and economic cooperation.
SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov thanked Liu Jiayi for the warm welcome and pointed out that it is a great honour for him to be heading the SCO Ambassadors Club delegation during the first offsite meeting this year in the home region of the great Chinese thinker and philosopher, Confucius.
"Today we can confidently say that the SCO Ambassadors Club gained a reputation of a practical and representative platform for discussing the issues of mutually beneficial cooperation within the SCO," Vladimir Norov noted.
The SCO Secretary-General said that over the two days spent in Jinan and Weihai, the delegation reviewed the outstanding achievements of the Shandong Province, one of the most powerful and dynamic economic centres of modern-day China that is fulfilling the Innovative Development Strategy and large-scale economic initiatives as well as implementing innovative approaches to cooperative work on the region's long-term development.
Vladimir Norov stressed that in June 2018 a historic meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council took place in Qingdao in the format of the ‘big Eurasian eight' including India and Pakistan where the leaders of our states summarised the results of the organisation's activity and determined the priorities of enhansing multi-dimensional cooperation and the prospects of expanding the organisation's international links.
The SCO Secretary-General said that many countries of the SCO Family have already established direct contacts with the Shandong Province and are consistently developing business and cultural links. "Today we had a successful presentation of the trade, economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation that once again demonstrated the growing interest in the collaboration between the SCO countries and as well as the tremendous potential of working together. The offsite meeting of the SCO Ambassadors Club also served as an important platform in Weihai and Jinan for a meeting with notable business representatives, key representatives of government bodies, education, tourism and media of the Shandong Province," Norov added.
The meeting participants included Ambassador Xiao Qinghua of the Chinese Foreign Ministry's Department of European-Central Asian Affairs, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of India to the People's Republic of China Vikram Misri, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Kyrgyzstan to the People's Republic of China Kanaiym Baktygulova, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan to the People's Republic of China Masood Khalid, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to the People's Republic of China Andrei Denisov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Tajikistan to the People's Republic of China Parviz Davlatzoda and Minister-Counsellor of the Embassy of the Republic of Kazakhstan to the People's Republic of China Yerik Ashimov. All the participants presented short speeches.
The Shandong Province is located in eastern China and plays an important role in the history and culture of the Chinese civilisation. One of China's famous mountains, Mount Tai, and the city of Qufu, birthplace of Confucius, are located in the province. These days Shandong is one of the most populated and wealthiest provinces in China (it ranks second in population and GDP among the provinces). The total area of the Shandong Province is 156,700 sq km and the population is over 100 million people.