The complicated political and institutional context surrounding greater economic cooperation between Central Asia and China calls for high level government commitment.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) is the top political body dealing with security and economic cooperation issues between member states: China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
A permanent SCO Secretariat in Beijing set up in 2004 gives weight and focus to regional economic cooperation issues and provides a mechanism through which the Silk Road Initiative (SRI) can address specific bottlenecks at the hightest political level. The SRI seeks to build a strong working partnership with the SCO in order to obtain support for project objectives.
While the Russian federation is not included in the scope of the SRI, it is envisaged that their knowledge of project activities, through SCO, will further enhance regional cooperation.
