BIGGER THAN THE US; BIGGER THAN THE EU
The emerging Eurasian bloc headed by China and Russia will be the world's major economic grouping - and soon! The SCO already includes China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan as full members, and observer states India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan may be promoted to full membership at the next meeting in Russia. In terms of population, resources and manufacturing capacity, the SCO is now the world's largest economic entity.
The implications of the emergence of the SCO have scarcely been discussed in the European; US or Australian media. Nations near the new group have shown more interest. ASEAN will attend the next meeting as guests, as will the US, who will doubtless be lobbying the Russians to block the admission of Iran. Australia has expressed no desire to attend, despite the fact that founding member China is our largest trading partner.
So far, the main agreement of the present SCO is to allow trade between member states in their own currencies. This move is intended to avoid the necessity of holding national reserves of $US, the long-standing international reserve currency. The Chinese hold vast $US reserves, and they have expressed concerns about its future stability and value. An extension of the agreement to trade in national currencies would be an exchange rate fixing mechanism, which would be equivalent to having an internal basket-of-currencies as a trade medium - a de facto SCO common currency, an Asian euro.
Concerns about the future of the US$ are rife. If the collapse anticipated by many occurs, the world will need the size, wealth and dynamism of the SCO to help rebuild the world economy.
Comments and updates:
TEHRAN (FNA)- Iran and Russia have replaced US Dollar with their own currencies in their trade ties, a senior Iranian diplomat announced on Saturday.
Vietnam has indicated its desire to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in a fresh sign of the rapidly growing clout and appeal of the Eurasian security body.
“Hanoi has signalled its intention to seek the status of ‘dialogue partner’ in the SCO,” said Kirill Barsky, special envoy of the Russian President to the SCO.
URUMQI - High-ranking officials from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) member nations and experts on Friday called for the establishment of a massive free-trade area (FTA) across the region to facilitate trade among one-fourth of the world's population.
"China believes the relevant parties should make full use of the current mechanism and discuss the feasibility of setting up an FTA among SCO member nations," said Zhong Shan, vice-minister of commerce, in a speech at the SCO Business Day in the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev promised to invest “hundreds of millions of dollars” in joint energy projects in Central Asia and called on regional powers to take responsibility for peace and security in the region.
Speaking after a quadripartite meeting with the leaders of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Tajikistan in Dushanbe on Friday Mr. Medvedev lamented on the lack of progress on economic projects agreed earlier.
“There’s a whole range of projects that have been on the table for a long time but have seen no movement forward and should be implemented,” Mr. Medvedev said, referring to the CASA-1000 project to export electricity from Tajikistan to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the TAPI (Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India) gas pipeline.
URUMQI, Sept. 1 (Xinhua) -- China will speed up the opening up of its western inland region, continue to fund cross-border infrastructure projects, and roll out favorable policies to make Xinjiang a key economic hub at the heartland of Eurasia.
India is in touch with members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) with regard to its membership in the six-nation grouping, the government said on Thursday, contending that its entry would add "value and stature" to the SCO. Its June summit held in Astana, attended by
external affairs minister S M Krishna, formally opened the SCO's doors to new members by approving a 'memorandum of obligations', which would enable non-member countries to apply for SCO membership.
BEIJING, AUG 13 (APP): Pakistan wants to further develop Gwadar port and will welcome Chinese role in the future, as it is the gateway to the Middle East and Indian Ocean economies, said Ambassador Masood Khan. “China has already built the Gwadar port. We, of course, want to develop it further. We will welcome a role by China in the future,” said Islamabad envoy to Beijing while talking to some correspondents here.
BEIJING, June 2 (APP): The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will start negotiations with Pakistan, India and Iran for their full membership after a memorandum is expected to be passed at its summit in June, SCO Secretary-General Muratbek Sansyzbayevich Imanaliev has said in Beijing. He also confirmed Afghanistan’s application for observer status,saying that it “is being studied and will be discussed at the upcoming summit”. The summit, to be held on June 15 in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, will pass a memorandum on the obligations of membership applicants, the China Daily reported Imanaliev as saying on Thursday. After the adoption of the memorandum, “we can start negotiations with the nations applying to join the SCO”, he said.
Associated Press of Pakistan
Annually since 1976, Project Censored has identified news stories “underreported, ignored, misrepresented, or censored in the United States.” Censored 2011 (Seven Stories Press) cites the efforts of global leaders with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization to begin the process of replacing the dollar as the world’s reserve currency as the top censored story of 2010.
China may contribute $8 billion to establish Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Development Bank, the 21st Century Business Herald reported Thursday.
The proposed fund to establish the bank could be as large as $10 billion. China would be the main investor, and the remainder may come from other SOC members like Russia, according to the report.
