DUSHANBE, February 26, Asia-Plus -- A roundtable meeting formally titled “Prospects of the Establishment of the SCO Energy Club” opened in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent today, according to the Tajik MFA.   

Homidjon Orifov, the head of scientific-research department of the Ministry of Energy and Industries (MoEI), and Nouriddin Qayumov, director of the institute for economic studies of the Ministry of Economic Development and Trade (MoDT) are representing Tajikistan at this one-day meeting.  

The meeting has focused on the issues related to inception of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Energy Club.  Participants at the meeting are considering the possibility of experts from member nations of the Organization in projecting model and concept of the Energy Club, as well as mechanisms of its functioning.  

The meeting participants include experts from the SCO member nations as well as representatives from large energy companies of these countries.  

We will recall that this issue was one of key topics of the fifth meeting of the Heads of Government Council of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization that was held in Dushanbe last September.  In Dushanbe, SCO prime ministers made decisions on implementing the initiative voiced by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the SCO summit last June, where he proposed to set up an SCO Energy Club, a mechanism that would unite energy producers, consumers and transit countries.  The heads of government instructed a special working group to study the prospects of establishing the Energy Club as soon as possible.