Kazakh Prime Minister Serik Akhmetov said on Friday that the member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) should keep implementing their economic agreements and enhance their economic cooperation.

It is very important for SCO member states to implement their economic agreements specifically and systematically and to adopt a series of steps to expedite the development of the SCO, Akhmetov said in a speech at the SCO prime ministers' meeting at the Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent.

As the conditions changed, the SCO should monitor the implementation of related agreements, he said.

The Kazakh prime minister said that completing the negotiation over the creation of the SCO development bank and the SCO development fund would increase the efficiency of economic cooperation within the SCO and enhance the organization's attractiveness to other countries.

Akhmetov also emphasized the importance of food security, saying it is of strategic importance to every SCO members state. He suggested the SCO member states should implement a cooperation schedule on food security.

The SCO, founded in the Chinese city of Shanghai on June 15, 2001, groups China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Afghanistan, India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan are observer states to the SCO, and Belarus, Turkey and Sri Lanka are dialogue partners of the organization.