DUSHANBE, November 2, Asia-Plus – A Council of Prime Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization met in Tashkent on Friday. Taking part in the session are the premiers of Russia, China, Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Opening the meeting, Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev noted that his country was playing host to a meeting of the Council of SCO Prime Ministers for the first time.

"We attach great significance to his event and are hoping that it will be a benchmark stage in the SCO development," he noted.

"I''m sure the Friday meeting will pass in a businesslike atmosphere, and hope you''ll have pleasant impressions from staying in Uzbekistan," Mirziyoyev said.

He congratulated his Russian colleague Viktor Zubkov with his appointment and wished him success in work.

The participants will consider prospects for further development of economic and humanitarian cooperation between the SCO members, in the light of the results of the Bishkek summit of this organization in August.

The prime ministers will hear a report by the SCO Secretariat, and consider a draft budget of the organization for 2008 and amendments to the financial and organization documents.

The premiers are expected to adopt a joint communiqué and sign a cooperation agreement in the customs sphere.

A Russian government source, speaking ahead of the meeting, told Itar-Tass that the Shanghai Cooperation Organization "enters an entirely new stage of its development," when specific investment projects in various fields - such as power generation, transport, high technologies, communications, environmental protection, medicine and humanitarian aid - will be implemented."

"The long-tem friendship and cooperation agreement signed by the SCO leaders in August will be a contributing factor. At the same time, Russia intends to adjust the program of economic cooperation between the SCO members until the year 2020 - which was approved in 2003 -- in order to ensure a more active and effective implementation of the designated projects," the government official said.

The main investment projects should be concentrated within the scope of the SCO Business Council and the Interbank Council, "which are a sort of translator of government initiatives to the manufacturing sector."

In addition, the implementation of the projects may involve other bodies set up in SCO member-states, such as the Russian-Kazakh Bank of Development.

As for energy cooperation, the source mentioned the work towards creating a SCO Energy Club "which will become a non-government consultative body for effective use of natural resources."

"The building of energy infrastructure and transmission lines which will allow for meeting China''s growing demand for electricity is one of the priority and promising projects," he said.

In general, "the SCO is a very important, promising and original organization with an image of its own. Unlike the Eurasian Economic Community, set up to integrate the socio-economic space of its members, the SCO" "is more characterized by regional aspects, specific projects, including pilot ones, which by no means dub or contradict the EurAsEc policy."

There projects are very important both for the SCO states and the whole region, including the observer countries at this organization, the source said.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization was founded in Shanghai in 2001. It comprises Russia, China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Its main objectives are promotion cooperation in the political, trade/economic, science and technological and cultural fields, in education, power generation, transport, tourism, environmental protection and joint securing and keeping of peace, security and stability and the region. The observer countries in SCO are India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan.