Shanghai Cooperation Organization
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a standing inter-governmental organization; its establishment was announced on 15 June 2001 in Shanghai (the PRC) by Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The SCO goals are:
- enhancing mutual confidence and good-neighborly relations between member states
- facilitating their effective cooperation in the political, trade and economic, scientific and technical and cultural spheres as well as in the field of education, energy, transport, tourism, and environmental protection
- collectively securing and maintaining peace, safety and stability in the region
- promoting the establishment of a democratic, fair and rational new international political and economic order.
The supreme decision-making body in the SCO is the Heads of State Council (HSC). The HSC meetings are held once a year. The meetings of the SCO Heads of Government Council (HGC) are conducted once a year to discuss a multilateral cooperation and top priority areas within the organization, to address strategic and current issues of economic and other types of cooperation as well as to approve the organization’s budget for a coming year.
In addition to the HSC and HGC meetings, there is a framework for meetings at the level of the heads of Parliaments, secretaries to the national security councils, ministers of foreign affairs, defense, emergency situations, economy, transport, culture, education, healthcare, heads of law enforcement authorities, supreme courts and courts of arbitration, and general prosecutors.
The Council of National Coordinators (CNC) serves as a framework for coordination within the SCO. The Organization has two permanent bodies, particularly the Secretariat in Beijing (PRC) and the Executive Committee of the Regional Antiterrorist Structure in Tashkent (Uzbekistan).
Information on Establishment of the Development Bank and a Special Account of the SCO Development Fund
The decision to establish the SCO Development Fund was made at the meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council on 17 June 2004 in Tashkent (Tashkent Declaration). The National Bank’s representatives are part of the expert panel in charge of establishment of the SCO Development Fund.
Since 2004, the National Bank of Kazakhstan has been taking part in the meetings of the expert group in charge of preparation of proposals on the procedure for establishment and the principles of operation of the SCO Development Fund, where the establishment of the SCO Development Fund (SCO Special Account) and the SCO Development Bank has been elaborated.
Currently, the work is in progress to approve the draft Key principles of establishment and operation of the SCO Development Fund (Special Account) and the Key principles of establishment and operation of the SCO Development Bank.
The gradual increase in the share of national currencies in mutual settlements of the SCO member states: the Project Roadmap
The Project Roadmap of the SCO member states on increasing the share of national currencies in mutual settlements was developed at the initiative of the Republic of Kazakhstan (the SCO Summit in June 2018 in Qingdao).
The Project Roadmap provides for creation of the required conditions for the functioning of the system of settlements in the national currencies of the SCO member states, contributing to the development of the national financial markets of the SCO countries, increasing liquidity in national currencies, developing interbank cooperation, and creating tools for hedging currency risks as part of a two-stage process (in the period of 2022-2023 and 2024-2025), as well as measures to stimulate settlements in national currencies (2022-2025).
The Project Roadmap provides for flexible provisions and reflects the readiness of countries to create appropriate conditions and develop a settlement and clearing mechanism to increase the share of national currencies in a multilateral manner in the SCO space, which do not imply the emergence of legal and other obligations of the parties.
As of April 1, 2022, were held 6 expert meetings on the development of mutual settlements in the national currencies of the SCO member states. The meetings were attended by the representatives of national (central) banks, Ministries of Finance and Foreign Affairs of the member states, as well as the SCO Interbank Association.
