ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday urged members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) to activate the bloc’s financial mechanisms, saying tools such as the SCO Interbank Consortium were under-used despite rising need for investment in regional trade corridors, digital links and infrastructure.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar went to Moscow a day earlier to attend the SCO’s Council of Heads of Government conference and present his country’s stance on regional and global issues.
The SCO is an intergovernmental organization that strives to strengthen cooperation between member states in politics, trade, economy, science and technology, culture, education, energy, transport, tourism and environmental sectors.
Addressing the conference, Dar said the grouping had created a framework for economic cooperation over the years but had yet to unlock the financing required to push projects forward.
“The SCO has established a foundation for sustainable economic progress, but we must aggressively utilize the tools already at our disposal, like the SCO Interbank Consortium, to finance connectivity and technical collaboration projects,” he said at the forum.
Dar noted Pakistan viewed economic, cultural and humanitarian cooperation as “interconnected threads in a single, stronger fabric of regional partnership,” and urged members to move from political declarations toward practical, cross-cutting initiatives.
He also highlighted disaster preparedness as an emerging priority for the bloc, saying Pakistan had developed a technology-driven early-response system and was ready to host simulation exercises with SCO partners.
Such exercises, he said, could strengthen coordination in a region prone to floods, earthquakes and extreme weather.
The deputy prime minister called for deeper engagement with SCO observer and partner states, saying they should be encouraged to participate as stakeholders in project-based initiatives rather than remaining on the sidelines.
He added the bloc’s recent adoption of English as a working language required follow-through, proposing the establishment of Translation Units to widen global outreach.
He said Pakistan also supported expanding the SCO University Network into a consortium for “Applied Knowledge,” enabling joint research programs in fields such as artificial intelligence, water resource management, agriculture and telemedicine to address shared challenges.
“Pakistan is committed to being a proactive and creative partner,” he said. “Let us ensure the legacy of our work is a region more innovative, more interconnected and more integrated than ever before.”
