Wen calls for more connectivity

China and Central Asia can work together to improve trade and deal with threats

Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday made another push for economic and financial cooperation within the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, calling for accelerated construction of regional connectivity.

China is ready to offer funding of $10 billion, which was promised in June during the SCO summit in Beijing, for key projects including infrastructure construction and energy cooperation, said Wen.

He made the remarks at the 11th prime ministers' meeting of the SCO, which groups China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Connectivity will be a breakthrough for the economic development of Central Asian countries, which need effective channels to connect with the outside world for more economic exchanges and trade, analysts said.

Construction of a railway connecting China, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan should be facilitated, which will promote the development of regions along the line, said Wen, adding that China is ready to discuss financing of the project.

The SCO's ambition is to build a land route from west to east, linking St. Petersburg in Russia with East China's Lianyungang by 2020, and a road network that connects all the member states to enable SCO countries to share outlets to the sea in a convenient and low-cost way.

Wen said the SCO should set up a development bank at an early date to provide strong support in financing the construction of infrastructure.

Sun Zhuangzhi, an expert on SCO studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said improved connectivity will benefit all SCO members, despite different development levels.

Most SCO members are landlocked, Sun noted.

"They have an urgent need to take part in multilateral cooperation to break this bottleneck in their economic development. Improving connectivity will promote their economic cooperation with the outside world," Sun said.

Roads and railways have helped connect Northwestern China with Central Asia, boosting trade and personnel exchanges in the region.

A year ago, China and Kazakhstan completed a railway line linking the two countries at the border port of Khorgos in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

And the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan highway has shortened the time of inter-city travel and improved shipments.

Qu Xing, president of the China Institute of International Studies, noted that connectivity is an important area for SCO cooperation.

Central Asia in particular has great potential in developing transportation, including road, railway and aviation, said Qu.

However, Qu noted that to ensure smooth progress in cooperation in infrastructure construction, the SCO should continue to monitor and tackle security threats and overcome differences among member countries.

In his speech, Wen called on SCO members to forge a stronger collective force to fight the "three evil forces" of terrorism, separatism and extremism, drug trafficking and cross-border organized crime.

Wen called on SCO members to beef up solidarity, mutual trust and support, and communicate closely on major issues concerning regional security and stability.

Security and economic cooperation have been the two pillars of SCO cooperation, said Sun, adding that economic cooperation will provide a foundation for security cooperation and give people in this region tangible benefits of development.

SCO members have worked to promote regional economic development, to improve people's lives, and to build people-to-people friendship, Wen said.

Wen also suggested developing an SCO telecom satellite service and establishing a China-SCO environment protection cooperation center.

The meeting brings together leaders from the SCO member states and representatives from observer states India, Mongolia, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, plus delegates from the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Eurasian Economic Community.

Uzbekistan will host the next SCO prime ministers' meeting in 2013.