The purpose of the forum was the creation of a common business information space as a vital tool for strengthening economic ties between the Member States of the Organization.
The event was organized by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the SCO Business Council and Business Club, the InfoSCO information portal, the Russian Foundation for High-Tech Development, and National Forum on Information Security “Infoforum”.
General sponsor was Bank for Foreign Economic Activity (Vnesheconombank).
The business forum was attended by power officials, representatives of business circles and of the expert community from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as the SCO observer countries and dialogue partners.
Opening the plenary session, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Energy, Ivan Grachev noted that none of the analysts could predict the global economic crisis. Therefore, within the framework of the SCO the member and partner states should find new ways to overcome the effects of economic crises.
Counselor of the SCO Secretariat, Sabyr Imandosov read out the greeting message of the SCO Secretary General Muratbek Imanaliyev. In particular, it was pointed out in it that for 10 years of existence the Organization has managed to lay a solid foundation for economic cooperation. The SCO Secretary General expressed confidence that the political unity and solidarity of the member countries will contribute to overcoming the global economic crisis. In this case, a key role in implementing joint projects will be played by the SCO Business Council.
Deputy Minister of Telecom and Mass Communications, Ilya Massukh agreed with previous speakers that only by joint efforts within the framework of SCO it is possible to counter new economic disruption. He expressed satisfaction that business cooperation is actively developing within SCO.
Deputy Director of the Department of Asian and Pacific Economic Cooperation of the RF Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Shipilov said that the SCO, originally founded as the Organization for Security and Cooperation for 10 years of development has also intensified the economic cooperation. According to him, without an economic component nobody in the world will now take the SCO into consideration, and emphasis should be placed on major projects.
Cai Guiru, Chairman of Moscow Greenwood International Trade Center announced intentions of the business park to create an innovative platform, where Chinese brand and quality products will be collected. She expressed hope that successful functioning of the Greenwood will eliminate prejudice of Chinese businessmen against Russia, and called it a bridge of cooperation between the Russian and Chinese business.
The main topics of roundtable discussions were the development of information technology, Internet communications, electronic commerce, exhibition activities, cooperation in the energy sector, youth entrepreneurship, small and medium businesses collaboration.
Summing up one of the roundtable discussions, the first deputy director of the Crocus Company Arkady Zlotnikov emphasized the need for creating an organization that would coordinate the exhibition industry in the SCO space. During the discussion, recommendations were made for the development and promotion of new forms and methods of exhibition and congress activities, including the use of advanced information technologies.
Director of the Russian Fund for the Development of High Technology, Pavel Provintsev, summarizing the roundtable “Energy security and the prospects of technological cooperation”, reported on a number of reports and proposals that require urgent implementation. According to him, the problems of energy security are global in nature. The struggle for control over natural resources underlies many today’s armed conflicts and coups. According to Provintsev, the SCO should refuse all forms of military struggle: energy conflicts must be solved not on the battlefield but in offices and laboratories. For this purpose it is necessary to use all the intellectual potential of the SCO, to involve the international expert community in the energy dialogue.
The experts of the round table “Information technology in collaboration of government agencies, participants of foreign economic activities and electronic communications networks of the SCO countries” called to “move talks about e-commerce into the practical mainstream. For this purpose a mechanism within the framework of SCO is required. One of such mechanisms can be the SCO Business Council base.
Director of the Roscentre LLC, Vladimir Rumyantsev, moderator of the round table “Development of business cooperation in the field of software and services on the Internet”, said the problems faced by the SCO Business Council can be solved by using the Internet and related technologies. He complained that for undertaking joint activities there need to be translation support, which eventually leads to increased costs. It is therefore proposed to organize a contest of projects for overcoming the linguistic barrier in Russian-Chinese cooperation with online negotiations.
During the debate on youth policy, it was decided to convene a youth entrepreneurship forum of SCO in August and September 2012 in the Altai. By estimations of experts, interest in youth entrepreneurship is very great now, and we would like to continue to develop in this direction. It is also assumed to create a working group for the introduction of a version of an international student card of SCO - an analog of ISIC and Euro <26 cards. The International Student Card SCO YOUTH CARD will offer significant discounts (from 30% to 80%) in three main areas: airfare, hotel accommodation, sightseeing in the SCO member states.
The forum participants adopted an appeal to the Council of Heads of Government of SCO Member States with practical recommendations to enhance economic cooperation in specific sectors.
Summarizing the event, Executive Secretary of the SCO Business Council Sergey Kanavsky stressed that the business forum was held with great success; suddenly a lot of guests came to Moscow Greenwood International Trade Center. According to him, the round tables discussed the burning problems to be addressed and implemented in the framework of the SCO Business Council.
S. Kanavsky also reported that Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in his speech at a meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government in St. Petersburg welcomed the business forum and expressed hope that such events will become a good tradition in the future.
According to S. Kanavsky, the work of the forum showed the great potential of the SCO Business Council from the viewpoint of SME and cooperation between scientific and business structures.
At the end of the business forum, an agreement was officially signed between the SCO Business Club and the Greenwood International Trade Center on the establishment of a Center for support of business initiatives of the SCO countries. Its headquarters will be located in the Greenwood. All interested commercial companies are invited to cooperate with the business park. The business forum participants have expressed hope that all the projects and undertakings expressed at the event will be implemented by this Centre.
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