China urges Shanghai Cooperation Organization member states to boost SME support

ST. PEERSBURG, June 18. /TASS/. China has proposed to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member states to boost support for small and medium business, Deputy Chairman of the Chinese Council for the Promotion of International Trade Yu Ping said on Thursday. The Chinese official spoke at the SCO business event held as part of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. "We should think about the needs of small and medium enterprises," he said. "Our trade and economic relations are developing actively but the role of small and medium business in them is small so far," he added. "We all know that innovations are an engine and a motor of any cooperation," Yu Ping said. "Our country is proposing to create a structure conventionally called the Center of Legal Consultations and the Solution of Commercial Disputes. The SCO Business Council should constantly improve its work to provide services and assistance to enterprises and businessmen of our countries," he said. The Chinese official expressed gratitude to the SCO member states for supporting the projects of the Silk Road economic corridor and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank founded in 2014 on China’s initiative. "We see with great pleasure how the countries supported the Bank’s idea of infrastructural investments, and especially that the SCO countries have become the founders of this Bank," the Chinese official said. "The business circles of our countries look with great hope at the SCO interbank association to intensify its role and press ahead with the issue of creating the SCO Bank. In this way, we’ll be able to facilitate cooperation between enterprises and businessmen of our countries," he said. The SCO is a regional grouping comprising Russia, China and the Central Asian former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Read more