On 2 June, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov attended a panel session on high-quality trade and commerce cooperation, part of the SCO Forum on People-to-People Friendship held in Wuhan.
Member of the Hubei Permanent Committee of the Communist Party of China vand Executive Vice Governor of the Hubei Province Li Lecheng opened the first thematic section. He thanked the SCO, ambassadors and diplomatic representatives and the Government of Hubei Province for supporting the Wuhan city administration's COVID-19 response efforts.
Under the guidance of PRC President Xi Jinping, the Government of Hubei Province together with the people put an end to the nationwide coronavirus pandemic in just three months.
Li Lecheng was happy to note that the SCO member states had responded positively to Xi Jinping's initiative on holding the SCO Forum on People-to-People Friendship. Hubei Province is an education hub with 129 universities, 73 academies, 29 research labs and 3,600 scientific research centres.
The Executive Vice Governor of Hubei Province expressed hope that the Forum would facilitate the SCO's development, strengthen friendly exchanges between SCO member states and help to promote collaboration in the field of trade and commerce.
SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov noted that trade and economic cooperation ranked among the most promising but yet at the same time problem-ridden dimensions of intra-SCO partnership.
The region generates about 25 percent of the global GDP. According to the International Monetary Fund's preliminary estimates, the total GDP of SCO member states will reach 30 ̶ 40 percent of the global GDP by 2030. At the same time, mutual trade volumes between the SCO member states total just five percent of their overall foreign trade.
Obviously, this does not match the organisation's tremendous potential. Total foreign trade volumes between SCO member states and third countries exceed $6.3 trillion.
On the subject of the SCO business partnership, Mr Norov singled out the long-overdue need for implementing mutual understandings as regards joint economic projects in various fields. All essential political, legal and organisational pre-requisites have already been created.
Participants in this thematic section, including Ambassador of the Russian Federation to the PRC Andrei Denisov, Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the PRC Mohammad Keshavarzzadeh and Deputy Secretary-General of the Eurasian Economic Forum Wang Kaiwen also exchanged views on strengthening cooperation in the field of trade and commerce between the SCO member states.