Prime Minister Askar Mamin proposed to strengthen cooperation of SCO states in agricultural industry

Askar Mamin took part in a video conference meeting of the Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The Head of Government emphasized the need to qualitatively strengthen cooperation in the field of trade, to explore mutual opportunities to increase the volume and depth of trade within the SCO.

The prime minister of Kazakhstan proposed to revise the SCO Cooperation Program on Food Security, supplementing it with specific measures to increase investment and innovation cooperation in the agricultural sector. According to him, the document must be strengthened, taking into account the competitive advantages of each of the SCO member states, as well as new approaches to ensuring a reliable, accessible and resistant logistics infrastructure to external and internal shocks.

The head of government noted the need to build up industrial and investment cooperation within the SCO.

“The implementation of joint investment projects will allow to strengthen the level of integration of national economies, diversify the directions of production processes and increase their stability, expand the access of the value created by the SCO member states to both mutual and foreign markets, maximize the potential of economies through competitive advantages, and reduce the impact of external shocks,’’ said Mamin.

The meeting was attended by Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu, Premier of the State Council of China Li Keqiang, Prime Ministers of Russia — Mikhail Mishustin, Tajikistan — Kokhir Rasulzoda, Uzbekistan — Abdulla Aripov, acting Prime Minister of Kyrgyzstan Artem Novikov, Secretary for External Relations of the Parliament of Pakistan Andleeb Abbas, First Vice President of Afghanistan Amrullah Saleh, Prime Minister of Belarus Roman Golovchenko, First Vice President of Iran Jahangiri Eskhaq, Deputy Prime Minister of Mongolia Yangugiin Sodbaatar, Deputy Chair of the Cabinet of Ministers - Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan Rashid Meredov, as well as the leadership of the SCO Secretariat, the RATS Executive Committee, the Business Council and the SCO Interbank Association. Measures to deepen cooperation between the SCO member states in trade, economic and investment spheres, including in the context of overcoming the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic were discussed. The activity of the Business Council and the SCO Interbank Association for 2019-2020, the report on the SCO budget execution for the last year, the Organization's budget for 2021 were considered.

Following the meeting, a joint communiqué and an Action Plan for the implementation of the SCO Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation Program for 2021-2025 were adopted.

The next meeting of the SCO Heads of Government will be held November 2021 in Nur-Sultan.

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