SCO chief lauds Harbin fair's cooperation contribution

The ongoing China Harbin Internati ronal Economic and Trade Fair has become a new platform for cooperation between members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), the organization's secretary general has said. Dmitry Mezentsev told Xinhua from the sidelines of the fair on Saturday that government officials and business representatives from SCO member states, observer states and dialogue partners have been attracted to the state-level event to conduct exchanges on regional cooperation. China and Russia are among the SCO's founding members, and the fair is being held in Harbin, capital of the northeastern Chinese province of Heilongjiang, which borders Russia. The SCO is an inter-governmental organization founded in 2001, with China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan now forming its membership. The SCO's observer states include Mongolia, Pakistan, Iran, India and Afghanistan. Belarus, Sri Lanka and Turkey are dialogue partners. Discussions on commerce, technology, engineering and finance are being held in Harbin, and they have proved conducive to economic and trade cooperations within the framework of the SCO, said Mezentsev. "We will endeavor to push the SCO's Entrepreneurs Committee and the Interbank Consortium to take measures and more actively take advantage of opportunities presented at the fair," he added. Relevant parties of the SCO are coordinating and consulting with experts on establishing a development bank for the SCO, according to Mezentsev. The top priority of the SCO remains strengthening regional security through cracking down on terrorism, separatism, extremism, organized crimes and drug trafficking, the group's secretary general said. Under the SCO Charter and the Declaration on the Establishment of the SCO, its main purposes include strengthening mutual trust and good-neighborliness and friendship among member states, and promoting the creation of a new international political and economic order featuring democracy, justice and rationality. The China Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair opened on Friday night and is scheduled to run until Wednesday. Since its first session in 1990, 1.9 million exhibitors and visitors from more than 80 countries and regions have attended the event, with over 100 billion U.S. dollars' worth of contracts inked.