China Can Provide Financial Aid to the SCO Countries

15.06.2009 — News

THE SVERDLOVSK OBLAST.

The members of the Chinese delegation at the SCO summit in Ekaterinburg assume that Hu Jintao, President of the People's Republic of Chinaб will speak about providing financial help to the SCO members in order to overcome the financial crisis. This aid is supposed to facilitate an increase in trade between the member countries. According to Sun Yongfu, Director of the Department of European Affairs of the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC, there was a 41% drop in the trade volume between Russia and China in January - April 2009 compared with the same period last year. The trade volume between Kazakhstan and China has dropped by 26%. Meanwhile, the volume of trade between China, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan increased by 80% during the same period.

According to Sun Yongfu, China has already granted loans to a number of SCO countries in 2004 in 2007. He said that "President Hu Jintao will probably share good news at this summit as well".

Prior to the opening of the summit, the state-owned China Development Bank signed an agreement about establishing a 1 billion U.S. dollar credit line for Vnesheconombank. This credit is intended for the financing of investment projects in the Sverdlovsk Oblast. Governor Eduard Rossel told RusBusinessNews that he was planning to go to Bejing for negotiations with Chinese bankers regarding the increase of credit lines to help modernise the Sverdlovsk oblast economy.