SCO summit approves setting up of Development Bank

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced on Monday that the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states have decided to establish a Development Bank to enhance the efficiency and social development of the region. The approval to set up the bank, a Chinese proposal, came after 10 years of deliberations among the member countries, Wang said. He added that the new bank will increase the efficiency and social development of the region. 

He, however, did not indicate any timeline to set up the bank. The SCO will launch this important process, and there will be one more multilateral platform in the EuroAsian region, he said. It is a good thing to celebrate not only for the member states but also for our region, Wang said. Chinese President Xi Jinping, in his inaugural address earlier, urged SCO member states to accelerate the creation of a development bank, considering the growing appeal of the 10-nation bloc.

China had been pushing the grouping to establish a development bank modelled after the New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, in which India is the second-largest shareholder. Both banks, based in China, which were initially regarded as competitors to the IMF, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), are now working with them with a co-financing pattern. Wang said SCO has also approved the admission of Lao as a new SCO partner. 

Additionally, the summit has decided to merge the observer states and dialogue partners into a single unified category as SCO partners. This is aimed at improving the efficiency of the organisation, he said. Founded in 2001 in Shanghai, the SCO now includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran and Belarus. Afghanistan and Mongolia are observer states, and 14 other countries serve as dialogue partners. The SCO has an extended family of 27, Wang said. In another development, Pakistan and Armenia have agreed to establish diplomatic relations, shedding their differences, Wang said.

Wang said the leaders witnessed the unveiling of the four security centres - the SCO universal centre for countering security challenges and threats, the information security centre, the centre combating transnational crimes, and the SCO anti-drug centre. Terming the summit under the Chinese Presidency as a milestone and highly successful, Wang said that major progress has been made in SCO security cooperation. He said that three cooperation centres will be set up for China-SCO cooperation in energy, green industry and the digital economy.  

The SCO has grown into the world's largest regional organisation, with the participation of 26 countries, cooperation covering more than 50 areas, and a combined economic output of nearly $30 trillion, Xi said in his inaugural address of the 25th summit here attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Russian President Vladimir Putin, among others. SCO's "international influence and appeal are increasing day by day," Xi told the gathering of 20 foreign leaders who converged here to take part in the SCO Plus summit, which is the largest held by the grouping so far.

Xi spoke twice at the SCO Summit and later addressed the SCO Plus summit, where he announced more initiatives from China to benefit the member states.