A flag with the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation's logo. Photo: AFP

China Development Bank and banks of the member countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) signed a regional economic cooperative plan for 2022-2027 during a regular conference on Tuesday, focusing on financial cooperation in some pillar sectors such as infrastructure for connectivity, low carbon initiatives and the digital economy.

The agreement, which was struck at the 18th conference of the SCO Interbank Consortium, a platform for joint financing of development projects by members and other SCO participants, will help to boost the steady economic recovery in the member countries, media reports said.

Zhao Huan, chairman of China Development Bank, who participated in Tuesday's conference, extended his expectation for all banks, both from member countries and other participating countries, to continuously strengthen the platform role of the SCO Interbank Consortium in promoting regional financial cooperation, as well as building better financial services for economic cooperation.

Zhao also called for strengthened cooperation in areas such as infrastructure interconnection, advanced manufacturing, green and low carbon initiatives, modern logistics and high-technology to provide strong support for the steady recovery of the regional economy.

At the beginning of this year, China Development Bank, the member bank with the largest loan scale, set up a special loan for the second phase of the SCO Interbank Consortium, with a scale of 30 billion yuan ($4.39 billion) to support high-quality joint construction of key areas of the project under the Belt and Road Initiative. The special loan is currently being implemented smoothly.

As of the end of June, China Development Bank, SCO member banks and partner banks have realized 63 cooperation projects, with a total of $14.6 billion of loans issued.