Esteemed Heads of Delegations!
Esteemed Participants of the Meeting!
Secretary-General’s report on the activity of the Organization after the eighth meeting of the Council of Heads of the SCO member states in Dushanbe is submitted to the Council of Heads of State.
During reporting period under the intensive chairmanship of Russia, the main efforts were concentrated on the fulfillment of the tasks set by the heads of state.
An essential tendency of cooperation in the space of the six states was consolidation of their positions in reacting to common challenges. Strengthening SCO's role as a positive factor of the international and regional policy, a mechanism of favorable conditions creation to ensure security, stability and economic growth of our states is an indisputable fact as was noted in the statements of the esteemed heads of state.
Jointly with other coordinating structures the continuing bodies conducted their work in accordance with the Plan of implementation of the main agreements reached at the meeting of the Heads of State in Dushanbe and at the Council of Heads of Government in Astana in October 2008, as well as in accordance with the decisions of the Foreign Ministers Council and the Council of the Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure.
By joint efforts of the foreign policy and other departments, the Secretariat and the Executive Committee of the RATS, the summit documents were drawn up, including the Declaration that contains an agreed valuation of the actual problems of the international and regional situation, priorities of multi-field cooperation development of the SCO member states.
During reporting period meetings of the following decision-making authorities took place: the Ministers in charge of foreign economic activity, Council of the Regional Counter-Terrorism Structure, Ministers of education and culture, Attorneys General, Ministers of Defense, Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of the Interior and Public Security, Heads of counternarcotics agencies, Secretaries of Security Councils, Ministers for Emergency Situations.
At these high-level meetings priority attention was paid to control of the status of implementation of the decisions of the heads of state and government, as well as to preparation work for the summit in Yekaterinburg.
The Provision of SCO’s political and diplomatic measures and response mechanisms to the situations imperiling the peace, security and stability in the region that has been worked out since 2007 is submitted to the heads of state for approval following the discussions at the meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers and Secretaries of Security Councils.
In accordance with the Plan of Action on ensuring international information security, an intergovernmental Agreement on cooperation in the field of IIS was prepared and is due to be signed today.
According to the decision taken at the summit in Dushanbe on considering within a special expert group a whole package of issues connected with the Organization expansion, the detailed preparation of the Provision of the mode of SCO’s new members admission is under way.
The anti-narcotic cooperation has been intensified. The heads of counternarcotics agencies agreed on a three-level mechanism of cooperation in drug trafficking suppression.
The Council of RATS has prepared a report on the Structure activity in 2008 for approval by the heads of state that reflects measures for coordinating efforts within its competence on basis of the Program of cooperation in struggle against terrorism, separatism and extremism for 2007-2009. Within RATS the work on the Convention against terrorism, Agreement on anti-terrorist personnel training and Program of cooperation for 2010-2012 has been completed.
The maintenance of security and stability in the SCO area depends on the gradual economic development, especially in conditions of the need for crisis phenomena in the world economy negotiation.
20 specialized organs coordinating economic, social and humanitarian projects implementation worked on a regular basis.
Revision of the Action plan on implementation of the program for multilateral trade and economic cooperation has been carried out. Upon approval by the heads of government, the Plan update was promptly circulated among the SCO member states executive structures, and the Business Council and Interbank Association
The Business Council conducted work on attracting investment and implementing projects in the field of healthcare, education, insurance activities on national and regional markets.
The Interbank Association approved a Provision of cooperation with the observer states authorized banking financial institutions. On the IBA management's recommendation I am addressing a request to the heads of the observer states' delegations to direct the relevant structures’ attention to this Provision.
The conference “SCO is the space of economic cooperation and counteraction to the global crisis” organized by the Business Council and IBA within the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum contributed to the common approaches development.
The cooperation in the humanitarian sphere was effective. Thus, the ministers of culture adopted the Declaration of youth’s role in preserving and augmenting cultural traditions and heritage of the SCO nations. This important future-oriented document seems to become a foundation for practical actions.
SCO’s partnership relations with the UN institutions, Commonwealth of Independent States, Eurasian Economic Community, Collective Security Treaty Organization and other associations have been intensively developed.
I would like to express sincere gratitude for the positive assessment of my contribution as a Secretary-General and a contribution of Myrzakan Usurkanovich Subanov as a Director of the Executive Council of RATS. The team of diplomats and experts working within SCO consider it a high honor to be involved in the noble mission of rapprochement between our countries that have created a perfect model of cooperation.
Thank you for your attention.