On 13 March 2020, Moscow was the venue of the International Economic Forum, CIS + World, attended by representatives of the CIS member states' political and business communities. SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov delivered remarks at the forum's plenary meeting.
He spoke about the importance of the forum in the context of Uzbekistan's current chairmanship of the CIS and the priorities based on the initiatives of President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev.
The SCO Secretary-General pointed out that at this time the SCO and the CIS were active members of the geo-economic processes in Eurasia, who are taking large-scale measures to stimulate the growth of mutual trade, remove any obstacles to the movement of goods and services, as well as create transportation and transit hubs combining land and marine routes.
"The member states of both organisations call for the creation of the North-South and East-West international transport corridors as vital and shorter transit routes for the delivery of goods between Asia and Europe. The SCO and the CIS can play a major role in the implementation of the idea of Greater Eurasian Partnership put forth by President of Russia Vladimir Putin, which provides for the integration of various multilateral regional integration projects underway in Eurasia," Vladimir Norov noted. "We consider it important in this connection to use the huge potential of the SCO and the CIS for the joint implementation of transcontinental projects aimed at creating transport connectivity through the development of ramified and integrated transportation routes in Eurasia."
The SCO Secretary-General emphasised the importance of improving the railway infrastructure in the two organisations' common space and the involvement of their countries in the development of Afghanistan's transport infrastructure within the framework of the Roadmap for Further Action adopted by the SCO-Afghanistan Contact Group.
Vladimir Norov recalled that the Concept of Cooperation of the SCO Members States in the Field of Digitalisation and Information Technology, which was adopted at the SCO summit in Bishkek in 2019, is designed to facilitate the development of an SCO market for the implementation of joint innovation projects in this field.
The SCO Secretary-General updated the forum participants on the more than 90 international events scheduled to take place during Russia's chairmanship of the SCO in 2019-2020, as well as the documents that are planned to be adopted at the Meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council held in St Petersburg on 23 July 2020.
The main speakers at the forum were Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Industry of Uzbekistan Jamshid Kuchkarov, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexei Overchuk, Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Alexander Pankin, Chairman of the Management Board of the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) Andrei Belyaninov, Chairman of the Board of the Eurasian Economic Commission Mikhail Myasnikovich, President of the Russian Chamber of Industry and Commerce Sergei Katyrin, State Secretary of the Union State of Russia and Belarus Grigory Rapota, plus First Deputy Managing Director of Russian Railways (RZD) Sergei Pavlov. The event was moderated by Executive Secretary of the CIS Sergei Lebedev.
The SCO Secretariat and the CIS Executive Committee signed a Memorandum of Understanding in 2005. At present, five CIS countries — Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan — are also members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, where Belarus holds an observer status and Armenia and Azerbaijan the status of dialogue partners.