SCO can become a staple in reformation of world economy: Nazarbayev

  President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev delivered a speech at the SCO Summit in Beijing. Nursultan Nazarbayev congratulated his Chinese partners on eventual success of China's chairmanship over the SCO and thanked them for traditional hospitality and excellent organization of the summit. Kazakh leader highly commended Hu Jintao's personal contribution to the formation and strengthening of the Shanghai organization, turning it into a reputable international forum that ensures regional security and stability and develops multilateral cooperation. "Developing economies are becoming the driving force behind global economic growth. The Shanghai Cooperation Organization has what it takes to become a staple of the post-crisis world in the process of reformation of the global economic architecture. The SCO member countries enjoy huge human, natural, investment and technological resources," President Nazarbayev stressed. "The member states have successfully overcome the consequences of the world financial crisis and solve the same problems in the process of modernization of national economies on a regular basis. It all offers favorable conditions for deepening of the multilateral economic cooperation. The priority task for the SCO at the moment is to enhance business contacts and use the potential of commercial and economic and investment cooperation more effectively. The implemented projects and increase in sales turnover would show whether our mutual work was successful." "Unfortunately, SCO failed to implement a project that would involve all member countries. I believe that the secretariat will need to mull it over. It could be a project of transport or transit character in the energy sector," Kazakh President suggested. Speaking of the SCO transport and transit potential, the Head of State emphasized it was necessary to boost mutual sales turnover by joining together the SCO markets, expanding transit cargo traffic between Europe and Asia. "The SCO intergovernmental agreement on the international motor transportation will be an important step in that direction. The international highway Western Europe-Western China is of paramount importance in terms of transport and commercial cooperation. The Kazakhstani part of the highway, 2 700 km long, is expected to be commissioned in 2013," Nursultan Nazarbayev added. "The good news is that the humanitarian component of collaboration within the SCO is gaining momentum. It is difficult to overestimate the significance of educational and cultural exchange, direct human contacts in ensuring the atmosphere of trust and mutual understanding on the SCO territory," President of Kazakhstan concluded.