«The priority task of the SCO countries is to ensure the resilience of member states to global challenges and protect citizens and enterprises in conditions of increasing competition and turbulence,» Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a meeting of the SCO Heads of Government in an expanded format.
According to him, it is important to combat such phenomena as tightening protectionist measures and illegal sanctions, because they lead to disruption of supply chains of goods and services in the world.
«Together we can deal with this. Evidence of this is the progressive growth of mutual trade volumes. The SCO countries need to continue to eliminate legal and administrative barriers to mutually beneficial economic cooperation. At the same time, it is necessary to build a modern payment infrastructure. We are increasingly using our own currency in payments. It would be worth considering the formation of an independent regional payment and settlement mechanism to ensure the conversion of our currencies on national exchanges,» Mikhail Mishustin said.
He stressed that expansion of transport potential is one of the promising areas for development of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Russia invites its partners to begin developing a draft international agreement on the use of the transit potential of the states of the association.
«Last year, the SCO countries approved the concept of developing interconnectedness and creating effective transport corridors. I invite my colleagues to become more actively involved in the implementation of such an important document. Instruct the relevant departments to take the necessary measures for this and begin to develop a draft international agreement on the use of the transit potential of our states. It is necessary to continue preparing a memorandum for the development of highways in the SCO space. Comprehensive joint efforts on the transport track will allow us to increase trade turnover and develop new markets, which will benefit our citizens and businesses,» Mikhail Mishustin concluded.
