|
BEIJING, June 11-- Expanded economic cooperation among members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will benefit the region, according to remarks made at the organization's yearly summit. Speaking at the annual summit of the SCO in Astana, Kazakhstan, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for deepening practical cooperation, as regional integration and economic globalization are the trends of the time, and it is important for them to bring benefits to all countries and peoples. To mobilize more resources and driving force for practical cooperation under the SCO framework, China supports the establishment of a mechanism for sub-national cooperation and has vigorously promoted SME (small and medium-sized enterprises) cooperation by its initiatives of economic think-tanks alliance and e-commerce alliance of the SCO, Xi said. Bilateral trade relations have grown closer between China and other SCO member countries, as trade facilitation has improved, with China becoming the largest trading partner of Russia and Kyrgyzstan. Meanwhile, mutual investment has grown steadily, with China's non-financial direct investment in other SCO members as of April 2017 amounting to 74.2 billion U.S. dollars and investment in the opposite direction totaling 1.09 billion U.S. dollars, according to Zhong Shan, minister of commerce. Zhong highlighted achievements in establishing economic and trade cooperation zones, noting that China has built a total of 21 such cooperation zones within other SCO countries, helping to expand local employment and increase tax revenue. | 
