By Xie Rong, Yu Maofeng
The upcoming summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is expected to touch on a wide range of issues, notably among them the global financial crisis and the security concern of its member states.
Regional economic cooperation
The global financial crisis has posed severe challenges to the SCO members, all of them developing countries.
All member countries have shown a strong desire to work together to tide over the economic downturn and speed up the recovery of regional economy, though each member has adopted its own economic stimulus packages.
The SCO, a regional organization founded in Shanghai in 2001, groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The past eight years have seen enhanced political mutual trust and deepened multilateral economic and trade cooperation within the group.
Trade volume between China and the other five SCO countries increased to 67.5 billion US dollars in 2007 from 12.1 dollars in 2001, an annual growth of 30 percent.
China's investment in Russia and the other four SCO members had surpassed 13 billion dollars by the end of 2007.
However, the international financial meltdown, which has taken a heavier toll since the second half of 2008, overshadowed not only the economies of each member country but trade within the bloc as well.
Analysts noted that under the circumstances it is vital for the SCO members to make full use of their vast natural and human resources to expand cooperation and lay a solid basis for the real economy.
The SCO leaders are expected to discuss the facilitation of trade and investment within the organization and the revival of the regional economy at the Yekaterinburg summit.
Security issues
The rampant drug trafficking and cross-border organized crime has made it an absolute necessity for SCO members to strengthen cooperation on security issues, observers said.
Their law enforcement departments have shouldered more responsibilities amid the global financial crisis, as traditional and non-traditional threats interwoven with each other pose long-term and complicated threats to regional development.
