During the meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the SCO in Dushanbe, the Prime Minister of Uzbekistan, Abdulla Aripov, put forward a number of initiatives concerning economic and technological cooperation.
He proposed accelerating the approval of the founding documents for the SCO Development Bank and commencing its operations. This bank will provide new opportunities for financing projects in the fields of transport, energy, industrial cooperation, and digital infrastructure.
Furthermore, Aripov suggested developing an SCO Industrial Cooperation Map to foster production and value chains, as well as preparing the concept 'SCO – 2040: Space for Common Development.'
The Prime Minister proposed granting permanent status to the 'SCO – Invest' business forum in Tashkent and holding the next event in Uzbekistan in 2027. Proposals were also made to establish an SCO forum on artificial intelligence and new digital solutions in Tashkent in 2027, as well as to launch the organization's open multilingual data corpus.
Initiatives were put forward to create a coordination mechanism regarding food, water, and energy security, and to launch a technological cooperation program in the field of water and energy efficiency until 2035.
In the cultural sphere, an initiative was raised to adopt a joint program for preserving traditional art and intangible heritage for the period 2028–2030. Finally, Aripov invited the meeting participants to the next meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of State, which will take place in Uzbekistan in 2027.
