Zhao Changqing, deputy director of the SCO Research Center under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Xinhua that China has made efforts to boost economic and trade cooperation with the five countries in central Asia, namely, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan.

He noted that the central Asian countries met with economic difficulties after gaining independence. Between 1992 and 1994, the gross domestic product (GDP) of some countries was halved in comparison with the time before independence. Later they suffered from economic crisis in southeast Asia and financial crisis in Russia. In contrast with them, the Chinese economy soared.

"These countries want to step out of economic downturn with stronger economic and trade cooperation with China and multilateral cooperation in the region," he said.

Apart from importing daily necessities and food from China, they also welcome investment and technological support from China. They hope to open the world market jointly with China that has already opened its market wide to the outside.

"SCO as a multilateral platform offers a good opportunity for countries in central Asia to revive its economy," Zhao said.

Established in 2001, the SCO groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, four of which are in central Asia.

Zhao noted the Chinese government has promised to offer 900 million U.S. dollars of loan on favorable terms for other SCO member states, and already carried out a program to train 1,500 professional personnel. In the meantime, 127 cooperative programs were included in a guideline to boost multilateral economic cooperation within the SCO framework. And the negotiation procedure of trade and investment facilitation has been started.

"All these measures will bring down-to-earth benefits to countries in central Asia," Zhao said.

Statistics showed that the trade volume between China and Russia in 2001 increased 4.718 billion dollars over that in 1992, and the volume between China and other four SCO member states rose 1.012 billion dollars in the decade from 1992 to 2001. From 2001 to 2005, respective trade volumes soared by 18.433 billion dollars and 7.149 billion dollars.

"These remarkable achievements were gained through bilateral and multilateral economic cooperation based on equality and mutual benefit," Zhao said.

Chen Yurong, director of the SCO Research Center of the Institute of International Studies, said economic cooperation among SCO member states should first target poverty, which severely threatens regional stability and security.

SCO member states share great potential in boosting economic cooperation in energy, transportation, telecommunications and agriculture. China and central Asian countries are complementary in economic terms. Central Asian countries with rich natural resources will help China overcome energy shortage, and China can help them train managerial personnel, expand tourism market and curb desertification.

However, Chen said to expand economic cooperation targeting regional prosperity needs more joint efforts. SCO member states should attach high importance to multilateral cooperation and strengthen mutual trust in political issues.

At present, such problems as insufficient exchange of information and lack of mutual understanding hinder the economic cooperation among SCO members, Chen said. Governments of all member states should work out more supportive policies to lower the risk of companies involved.

Holding an optimistic view about the prospect of SCO economic cooperation, Zhao said the organization on an initial stage lacks experience in comparison with other regional organizations like the European Union.

He stressed that SCO is to build up a free economic and trade zone where the exchanges of commodity, capital and human resources could all be carried out conveniently. However, SCO should open a way of its own with cautious and positive paces instead of following the steps of others.