The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is set to establish a development bank to bolster social development among member nations, signaling a move to lessen dependence on the U.S.-dominated global financial system. This decision follows a dec...
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) has decided to set up a development bank in keeping with the social development agenda of the member nations, even as it called out unilateral coercive measures, including those of an economic nature, in an indirect reference to US tariffs and sanctions.
The move, announced in the Tianjin SCO declaration issued on Monday, underscored yet another effort by large emerging economies to reduce their reliance on the global order shaped and controlled by the United States, after the New Development Bank of BRICS created in the backdrop of the lack of reforms in the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank.
SCO said that the interested member nations had decided to establish a development bank and intensify consultations on a range of issues related to the functioning of the financial institution. Later, Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi announced that the SCO member states had decided to set up a development bank to increase the efficiency and social development of the region, without indicating any timeline to set up the bank. The approval to set up the bank came after 10 years of deliberations among the member countries of the SCO, he said.
The summit also adopted a statement supporting the multilateral trading system, with members opposing the unilateral coercive measures that contravene the United Nations Charter and other norms of international law, and the rules and principles of the World Trade Organization, damage the interests of international security, including its food and energy components, negatively affect the global economy, undermine fair competition and hinder international cooperation and the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
The SCO member nations also hailed the initiative to develop an agreement on trade facilitation within the organisation and stressed the importance of further implementation by interested members of the roadmap for the gradual increase of the share of national currencies in mutual settlements.
