Russian PM calls setting up of SCO financial mechanism top priority task

ZHENGZHOU, China, December 15. /TASS/. Top priority task of the day is to set up a financial mechanism of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday at a session of the SCO Council of Prime Ministers, in which the delegations of full member-states, as well as observer and partner nations took part. "For an efficient financial backing, inclusive of privileged loans, task number one is to set up a financial mechanism of the SCO," he said. "We’re lagging behind time. It’s important to think over how we could fit out our system with a mechanism similar to the ones already functioning in other organizations, like the Eurasian Development Bank, the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the SCO Interbank Association, the Silk Road Fund, and the BRICS New Development Bank." "All these institutes can be combined to one or another degree with the tasks we’re discussing today," Medvedev said. He also called on the SCO member-states to begin transactions in national currencies with Russia. "At this stage, an increase in the share of (transactions in) national currencies could boost trade within the SCO considerably," he said. "We’ve launched a pilot project on the Moscow Exchange, a pilot platform for ruble/yuan and ruble/tenge transactions without the U.S. dollar as a go-between currency," Medvedev said. "We call on others to get included in these initiatives." Along with it, he believes that the mutual trade turnover can be influenced by a programme of collaboration of SCO customs agencies slanted for the years through to 2021. Participants in the conference were expected to sign it upon the end of the session. Read more