On 3 June 2021, SCO Secretary-General Vladimir Norov spoke at the session on Taking Stock and Broadening Horizons for New Economic Partnerships in the SCO at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum.
He noted the SCO's achievements in improving its legal framework and ensuring broad equal cooperation between the member states adding that, over the past two decades since it was established, the SCO has built one of the world's largest systems for successfully combining national and regional interests in various areas of cooperation.
Vladimir Norov highlighted the main areas for economic cooperation that require heightened attention, such as cross-border e-commerce, digitalisation in the transport sector, development of agriculture and industrial clusters, as well as creating chains of multimodal transport and logistics centres to expand mutual trade and overcome the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in the shortest possible time.
"The SCO has withstood the test of time and become an important constructive and independent factor in Eurasia. It has achieved significant results and has earned wide international recognition as a prestigious and influential regional organisation," the SCO Secretary-General said referring to the organisation's upcoming 20th anniversary.
The discussion was also attended by Deputy Chair of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Republic of Tajikistan Manzura Rustamova; Professor at the Taihe Institute, SCO Secretary-General in 2016-2018 Rashid Alimov; Chair of the Russian Federation's State Duma Committee on Economic Policy, Industry, Innovative Development and Entrepreneurship Sergei Zhigarev; Chief Banker at VEB.RF Sergei Storchak; and Special Presidential Representative for SCO Affairs Bakhtiyor Khakimov.
The session moderator, President of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Russian Federation Sergei Katyrin, summed up the discussion results adding that the SCO consolidated joint work to build and deepen business contacts amid the crisis caused by the pandemic, to search for new growth points and drivers for business development across the SCO landscape.