Participation of BelCCI Representatives in the SCO Business and Investment Conference

Deputy Chairman of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Denis Meleshkin and Head of the Department of Legal Support and Digital Technologies Vitaly Vabishchevich are on a visit to Islamabad (Islamic Republic of Pakistan). The main purpose of the visit is to participate in the SCO Business and Investment Conference on September 12-13.

On September 13, Deputy Chairman of the BelCCI spoke at the plenary session of the conference. In his speech, he noted the significance of Belarus joining the SCO full members for the development of the country's foreign economic relations. "I hope, even confident that the Republic of Belarus and the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry will make every possible effort to work together productively", said Denis Meleshkin.

He also highlighted a number of areas of work that are necessary to strengthen integration, including the formation of SCO economic preferences, creation of financial mechanisms to support cooperation, introduction of preferential conditions for mutual investment, development of transport and logistics routes, and expansion of the SCO's transit potential, intensification of trade on electronic platforms, removal of barriers and obstacles in mutual trade, coordinated actions against unilateral illegal sanctions restrictions.

Speaking about these areas, the Deputy Chairman of the BelCCI dwelt in detail on the topic that directly affects the competence of chambers of commerce and industry and is based on specific business requests: "The first is the organization and mutual participation in international exhibitions. We consider it necessary to increase the involvement of businesses of the SCO member states in mutual participation in large-scale exhibition events, to form a calendar of SCO exhibition events. The second area is the search for partners for export and import. I propose to combine our tools and create, for example, on the website of the SCO Business Council, a separate interactive page and fill it with sources of partner search for each country, that is, to give access to our membership bases or other resources to interested businesses. And the third area is operational advisory support, for the implementation of which a unified information and advisory center can serve".

At the end of his speech Denis Meleshkin expressed his hope that the SCO potential would be fully utilized for further development and strengthening of mutually beneficial partnership and cooperation of the member states' businesses.

Following the plenary session, representatives of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry took part in the conference discussion panels on the following topics: "Trade Cooperation of the SCO Member States: Opportunities and Challenges", "Regional Tourism in the SCO: Addressing Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Tourism Development in the SCO Region", "Digital Transformation and IT Cooperation in the SCO Region: Discussing the Role of IT in Stimulating Economic Growth and Innovation in the SCO Region".

The visit of BelCCI representatives to Islamabad also featured meetings with Nasir Ahmed, Deputy Minister of Commerce of Pakistan, Atif Ikram, President of the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Pakistan, Zhurabek Kirgizbekov and Shahzad Sabir, representatives of BelCCI to Pakistan.

The meeting with the Deputy Minister of Commerce and Chairman of the Federation of CCIs of Pakistan focused on promising areas of Belarusian-Pakistani trade and economic cooperation, further plans of interaction between the chambers of commerce and industry, possible formats of joint events, including the business program within the framework of the forthcoming visit of the Belarusian delegation to Pakistan, and organizational issues of the visit.

The Belarusian side made a proposal to organize the National Exhibition of Pakistan in Belarus or a national exposition within the framework of one of the major exhibition and congress events in our country.

Representatives of the Belarusian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Pakistan Zhurabek Kirgizbekov and Shahzad Sabir spoke about the work aimed to promote the interests of the BelCCI and Belarusian-Pakistani business contacts, the business climate in Pakistan, and promising areas for expanding cooperation. They outlined plans for further interaction, including providing assistance by BelCCI representatives in organizing upcoming bilateral business events.