[Title] JOINT COMMUNIQUE Meeting of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

A regular meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) of the Member States of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (hereinafter referred to as the SCO and/or the Organization) was held on November 7, 2011 in St. Petersburg. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister K. Massimov of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Premier of the State Council Wen Jiabao of the People's Republic of China, First Deputy Prime Minister, acting Prime Minister O. Babanov of the Kyrgyz Republic, Prime Minister V. Putin of the Russian Federation, Prime Minister A. Akilov of the Republic of Tajikistan, First Deputy Prime Minister R. Azimov of the Republic of Uzbekistan.

The SCO Secretary General M. Imanaliev, Deputy Director of the Executive Committee of the SCO Regional Antiterrorist Structure V. Kasymov, Chairman of the Board of the SCO Business Council D. Mezentsev, and Chairman of the Board of the SCO Interbank Association Chen Yuan participated in the meeting.

The meeting was attended by representatives of the SCO observer states - Minister of Energy of the Republic of India S. Shinde, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran A. Salihi, First Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Mongolia N.Altanhuyag, Prime Minister Yu Gilani of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, and guests of the as host - Second Vice- President of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan M. Halili, as well as Chairman of the Executive Committee - Executive Secretary of the Commonwealth of Independent States S. Lebedev and Deputy Secretary General of the Eurasian Economic Community M. Musataev .

The heads of government noted that the current session of the Council of Heads of Government was held in the year of the 10th anniversary of the SCO founding and called for further Organization strengthening and development for the benefit of all of its Member States.

The participants of the meeting congratulated the Government and people of the Kyrgyz Republic on the success of the presidential elections and wished them well in the political and socio-economic development of the country.

In a friendly, constructive and businesslike atmosphere, the head of delegations exchanged views on a wide range of issues of global and regional economic development. The parties have stressed that in the conditions of the apparent uncertainty in global financial and commodity markets and amid signs of a slowdown in global economic growth, the SCO region is characterized by stability, GDP growth and investment attractiveness. The meeting adopted a Joint statement of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) of the Member States on the economic situation in the world and in the SCO region.

The heads of government noted that since their last meeting (November 25, 2010, Dushanbe) the joint work in key areas of economic and humanitarian cooperation had been active and brought a number of concrete results.

It was noted that the heads of the SCO member states at their meeting (June 15, 2011 in Astana) paid special attention to the need to develop economic cooperation and agreed to provide new impetus to this work. At the summit it has been confirmed that one of the important objectives of the Organization is to improve the welfare and quality of life of people in the SCO region.

In this regard, the heads of government stressed the need to focus on the elaboration and implementation of joint projects, especially in areas such as transport, telecommunications, science and technology, innovation, energy, agriculture, trade, tourism and other areas. Such cooperation would contribute to the modernization of the national economies of the member states of the Organization, their innovation-based, sustainable economic development.

The meeting noted an important role of the SCO Business Council and SCO Interbank Association in promoting links between the business circles and banking institutions of the member states of the Organization.

The heads of government welcomed the results of the meeting of the ministers of the SCO member states in charge of external economic and trade activities held on October 26, 2011 in Dushanbe.

In order to promote economic and humanitarian cooperation in the SCO, the heads of government instructed the relevant ministries and agencies to prepare a draft list of actions to further develop the project activities within the SCO to be approved by the Council of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) of the SCO member states in due course.

The heads of government expressed their appreciation of the practical events held recently in the SCO aimed at intensified regional economic cooperation, and supported regular events of this kind in the future.

The heads of government reiterated their principled support for the establishment of the Special Account of the SCO and the SCO Development Bank. They instructed to continue work on the development of effective mechanisms for financial support of project activities within the SCO with the view of completing it by the next meeting of the Council of Heads of SCO Member States in China.

The heads of government welcomed the outcome of the meeting of the transport ministers of SCO Member States (October 28, 2011 in Moscow). It was considered necessary to continue active cooperation at all levels in order to ensure timely implementation of the agreements reached and of joint "pilot" projects in transport.

The meeting stressed the importance of further deepening customs cooperation and intensifying work in the field of e-commerce between the SCO member states.

The meeting noted a need to intensify the joint work on the economic model of the draft Concept "Information superhighway of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization".

The heads of government stressed the significance of cooperation in science, technology and innovation, and importance of identifying priority projects in these areas for the cooperation in the interests of modernization and economic development of the SCO member states.

In view of the outcome of the meeting of heads of ministries and departments of the SCO member states responsible for emergency prevention and management (September 27, 2011, Dushanbe), the parties highlighted the need for continued cooperation in jointly countering the threats of natural and man-made disasters, ensuring rapid response to them, inter alia, through the exchange of technology.

The heads of government consider necessary to promote increased tourist flow and exchange information between member states on investment projects and state policy in tourism.

The participants called for further deepening of humanitarian cooperation in order to strengthen friendship and good neighborly relations between the peoples of the member states.

The heads of government underlined the importance of the Agreement signed between the governments of SCO member states on cooperation in health sector (June 15, 2011, Astana) and called for the deepening of multilateral cooperation in this area. They praised the results of the 2nd meeting of heads of services of the SCO member states responsible for ensuring sanitary and epidemiological welfare of the population (October 14, 2011, Moscow) that outlined to further promote cooperation in combating communicable diseases and strengthening sanitary control in the SCO region.

The heads of government attach great importance of involving SCO observer states and dialogue partners with the SCO activities and projects in the economic and humanitarian fields. In this regard, additional practical steps will be made in this direction.

The heads of government approved the report of the SCO Secretariat on the implementation of the Program of Multilateral Trade and Economic Cooperation among the Organization's member states (December 2010 - November 2011).

The meeting approved the budget of the Organization for 2012. Decisions were taken on a number of financial and organizational issues of the SCO permanent bodies.

As part of meeting of the Council of Heads of Government, the medium-term Strategy for further development of the SCO Interbank Association (2012 - 2016) was signed.

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The heads of government noted the high level of organization and holding of the meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) of the SCO member states and expressed gratitude to the Russian side for its hospitality.

The next meeting of the Council of Heads of Government (Prime Ministers) of the SCO member states will be held in 2012 in the Kyrgyz Republic.

November 7, 2011, St. Petersburg