By Yuling Chen, Deng Zhang, iChongqing News

Chongqing- The opening ceremony of 2019 SCO Heads of Region Meeting kicked off in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, May 15, 2019. The event is themed with “Upholding Openness and Inclusiveness for New Opportunities of the SCO Regional Cooperation”. Its cohosts are the Chongqing Municipal People's Government and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Secretariat. Moreover, it gathered more than 200 guests.

The opening ceremony of 2019 SCO Heads of Region Meeting kicks off in Southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, May 15, 2019.

Messages at the opening ceremony

At the opening ceremony, Tang Liangzhi, Mayor of Chongqing Municipality, noted that 2019 SCO Heads of Region Meeting provides an important platform to deepen cooperation.  "Chongqing is willing to join hands with the SCO regions to strengthen infrastructure connectivity, focus on the construction of China Railway Express (Chongqing) to Europe and New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, deepen cooperation in customs clearance, logistics, security and other fields, strengthen the synergy of industrial development, and promote matchmaking of the industrial zones in the pilot free trade zone. and expand cooperation in the fields of smart industry, smart manufacturing, energy, and agriculture," said Mayor Tang and concluded that Shanghai Spirit is a common asset.

"The meeting co-hosted by the Chongqing Municipality and the SCO Secretariat will help all relevant parties to seize the opportunity of jointly constructing the Belt and Road, strengthen policy coordination at the local level, explore the potential for cooperation and better help local economic and social development," said China’s Assistant Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong.

SCO Deputy Secretary-General Sherali Saidamir Jonon said, "Chongqing is one of China's most powerful and fastest-growing economic centers. It is also a core participant to implement the national strategy of the Belt and Road Initiative. There are very modern transportation and logistics facilities, which create favorable conditions for us to further develop mutually beneficial cooperation."

Sergey Kanavskiy, Executive Secretary of SCO Business Council noted, “The SCO is now developing economic and trade cooperation in an all-around way, and the economic and trade exchanges between various countries and regions are closely related to the heads of region meeting. I believe that such a meeting can further promote the coordination of development strategies of relevant countries, and also can be a model of regional cooperation.”

Keynote speeches after the opening ceremony

Representatives of Kazakhstan, China, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan,

Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Belarus, Iran, and Mongolia delivered keynote speeches to share their positive views on SCO or Belt and Road, and some introduced their regions or countries to present participants.

It is worth mentioning that Belarus is an important country in Eastern Europe, a partner of the Belt and Road, an observer of the SCO, an important international strategic partner of China Railway Express (Chongqing) to Europe. Last year the import and export volume of Chongqing to Belarus reached RMB 87.317 million. Chongqing and Belarus also have an extensive exchange in areas of people-to-people exchanges, culture, education, and tourism.

In addition, H.E. Masood Khalid, Pakistani Ambassador to China took an interview. “Pakistan and China have a very deep and substantive relationship,” said Mr. Khalid and added that, “This platform, SCO, has provided us an opportunity to more closely interact with our neighbors and partners.”