On 9 March 2021, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov met with Chairman of the Board of Directors of China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec Group) Zhang Yuzhuo.
The SCO Secretary-General briefed his interlocutor on cooperation in the fuel and energy area within the SCO framework and its member-states' potential in this field.
He stressed that pursuant to the SCO Charter one of the organisation's goals is to encourage effective regional cooperation in energy.
In their SCO Development Strategy towards 2025 all member states expressed determination to develop mutually beneficial multifaceted cooperation in energy, including the use of renewable and alternative energy sources.
Vladimir Norov highlighted the Moscow Declaration adopted by the SCO Heads of State Council Meeting in 2021, stressing that the member states favour still stronger cooperation in trade, production, transport, energy, finance, investment, agriculture, customs, telecommunications, information technology, innovation and other areas of mutual interest for the sake of open, inclusive, innovatory, green and sustainable development.
In this context, he highly praised the Sinopec Group's efforts to advance cooperation in implementing important projects in the SCO countries and urged the company's management to enhance interaction with the SCO countries based on the principles of the Shanghai Spirit.
Zhang Yuzhuo noted that Sinopec Corporation is a group of petroleum and chemical enterprises set up in July 1998 on the basis of the former China Petrochemical Corporation.
Sinopec Group is the largest supplier of oil and petrochemical products, the second largest oil and gas producer in China, a major oil processing company and the world's third largest chemical company. In terms of the total number of filling stations it ranks second in the world. Sinopec Group won the second place in the Fortune Global 500 in 2019.
Zhang Yuzhuo also said that Sinopec Group has a vast potential and experience of operation in the SCO member states. He thinks that given the available capacity of the SCO countries for cooperation in fuel and energy, his company is prepared to expand mutually beneficial cooperation with companies from the SCO member states.