BEIJING, Jan 30 (APP): Pakistan, as the chair of Council of Heads of Government of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will hold more than 80 events till November this year, Director General (SCO), Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Altamash Wazir Khan said on Tuesday.

“Since, we took over chairmanship of the Council in October last year, we have already organized over 20 events in two and a half months and we also plan to hold 60 more events till November,” he told media here at the SCO Secretariat.

Altamash Wazir Khan is currently attending the meeting of the SCO National Coordinators Council being held from January 31 to February 01 in the Chinese capital.
He informed that in September, the country was planning to host meetings of the commerce ministers or the trade ministers of the SCO states.
“Pakistan is likely to host a meeting of the prime ministers of the SCO member countries before conclusion of its chairmanship in November this year,” he added.

In response to a question about the priorities of Pakistan at the SCO forum, he said that the country as the chair of the council of heads of government would focus on economic cooperation, financial cooperation, and humanitarian cooperation.

“And very close to heart of Pakistan is connectivity. And the connectivity, we mean not only roads, not only railways, not only airlines, but also the connectivity amongst people,” he added.

The director general said that Pakistan hosted an online conference on youth empowerment through digital economy today in which the country was bringing in all digital spheres and cooperation in the areas such as e-commerce, and how it could help the youth.

To another question, he said that at SCO, all the countries discuss the matters which were of mutual benefit. The SCO has nine countries as its members at the moment. In July, Belarus was likely to become a full member.

“Our priorities are more of economic development and progress in the areas of humanitarian cooperation. Security is also one of it but we try to avoid discussion on the bilateral issues.”
About the progress on a new bank of SCO countries, he said that the financial experts were already working on that and the drafts had been exchanged.
When asked whether the upcoming general election would influence the relations between Pakistan and the SCO, he said that with the SCO, Pakistan was involved as a state.
He said that SCO did not deal with bilateral issues. Its main focus was always on those areas which were mutually beneficial for all the members. That was a basic principle of SCO and the member states tried to avoid issues which could be of bilateral concern.
Altamash Wazir Khan said that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a flagship project of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was progressing and doing well.

APP/asg