KARACHI: During a two-day Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO)’s summit held recently in China, China’s President Xi Jinping announced the Global Governance Initiative (GGI). Economic nationalists and strategists dub the GGI as a new world order. Pakistan can stand to benefit from such regional and global formations, they said while talking to Business Recorder.
Economic strategist and regional expert Dr Mehmoodul Hassan Khan said the ‘Shanghai Spirit’ features mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and the pursuit of common development, as the bedrock of regional cooperation of the SCO.
He believes the SCO’s participation in regional e-commerce, digitalization, modernization and social development have been both impressive and indispensable, in stark contrast to the Western style of “carrot and stick” diplomacy, Cold War mentality, conditional economic aid, political compulsion and geostrategic preferential arrangements.
He said it has been an instrumental force for global shared prosperity, a regional economic stabilizer, an industrial stimulator and a champion of peace – qualities that dwarf any Western organization, including North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
According to him, “official statistics show that China’s annual bilateral trade with other SCO member states has surpassed $500 billion while its investment stock in other SCO member states has exceeded $84 billion.“
At the recent Tianjin summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to provide 2 billion yuan ($280 million) in grants to SCO member states within this year.
China will also issue an additional 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion) in loans to the member banks of the SCO Interbank Consortium over the next three years.
Dr Khan said the SCO stands for economic prosperity, trans-regional connectivity and regional integration and being an important member of it, Pakistan can develop and diversify its macro-economy and its bilateral and trilateral relations with all its member countries.
He said Pakistan’s socio-economic drive, with all the member countries of the SCO from Central Asia, has been immensely increased in terms of trade, investment, industrial cooperation, services exports, energy cooperation, joint ventures, people-to-people contacts and enhanced political and diplomatic understanding with each other.
He said interestingly, Pakistan’s national capacity of fighting against terrorism has been further modernized and sustained because of the regional anti-terrorist structure of the SCO, and formation of trilateral dialogue among Pakistan, China and Afghanistan.
According to reports, Pakistan’s foreign trade, remittances, agricultural exports, and energy cooperation have been rising since its inclusion in the SCO a couple of years back.
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According to reports, the combined GDP of SCO members (China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Iran, Belarus) has reached about $24.6 trillion, accounting for around 23 percent of global GDP and 42 percent of the global population.
In 2024, the total trade volume between China and other SCO member states amounted to 3.65 trillion yuan ($512.4 billion), 36.3 times the level recorded when the organization was established.
Economically, the SCO is gaining momentum, experts say. Its future prospects are bright, indicating a collective nominal GDP of $70.4 trillion and a GDP in purchasing power parity (PPP) terms of $81.8 trillion for the year 2025.
Analysts also say the GGI will further enhance Pakistan’s economy, industrial productivity and socio-economic integration with other SCO members and the ‘GGI Global Family’ in the days to come.
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After its inclusion in the GGI, Pakistan could be in a better position to receive loans and expertise from all the member countries, especially China, Russia, and other big economies.
It would be the first big “systematic” step towards achieving a “strategic equilibrium” in the working, efficacy and productivity of the international world order, catering to the genuine causes and concerns of developing countries. It would be supportive to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), transforming communities, countries and continents in the world.
Pakistan is passing through difficult times because of the ongoing onslaught of severe floods in the country. A World Bank report has also confirmed that Pakistan is highly vulnerable to natural disasters including earthquakes, landslides, and water scarcity all of which greatly damage the country’s infrastructure and, consequently, negatively affect people’s welfare, Unfortunately, Pakistan has been ranked fifth among nations most affected by extreme weather events driven by climate change.
However, SCO Plus and the GGI could facilitate Pakistan to protect its vested interests of economic security, environment balance, ecological diversity and green transformation. Pakistan is one of the biggest importers of solar panels from China, being part of the SCO.
As Pakistan desires to officially launch the CPEC 2.0, the combination of the SCO and GGI could be immensely beneficial for it. Thus there is an urgent need to form Corridor of Disaster Management, Corridor of Anti-Global Warming and Corridor of the protection of glaciers with the SCO and the GGI, analysts say.
Pakistan is also a staunch supporter of SCO Development Bank which could help its local community and social development.
