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Uzbekistan has proposed a long-term development strategy for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation stretching to 2040, a joint industrial cooperation map for member states and a permanent investment platform, Prime Minister Abdulla Aripov announced at the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting in Dushanbe on Monday.
The session in the Tajik capital brought together heads of government and representatives of SCO member states alongside delegations from Mongolia and Turkmenistan. Talks were held in both restricted and expanded formats.
Aripov told the gathering that the SCO had expanded its membership and consolidated its role as a multilateral platform over its 25 years of existence, but argued that further progress would require closer practical engagement and the delivery of concrete joint projects.
A blueprint for shared development
The proposed SCO-2040 strategy is framed around creating what Tashkent describes as an interconnected, open and sustainable space for shared development, drawing more fully on member states’ human, natural, industrial and intellectual resources. Alongside the strategy, Uzbekistan called for a map of industrial cooperation across SCO countries designed to build cross-border production chains and increase added value within the bloc.
Aripov urged member states to accelerate agreement on the founding documents of the SCO Development Bank and move towards launching its operations. The proposed institution is intended to finance priority projects in transport, energy, industry and digital infrastructure, though no timeline for its establishment was specified in the proposals presented.
Permanent investment forum
Tashkent proposed converting the SCO-Invest business forum — currently held as part of the Tashkent International Investment Forum — into a standing platform. Uzbekistan said it was prepared to host the next edition in 2027.
Technology, AI and regional security
On science and technology, Aripov invited SCO participants to a forum on artificial intelligence and new digital solutions planned for Tashkent in 2027, and called for stronger cooperation on joint research and technology exchange more broadly. A separate proposal envisions launching a technology cooperation programme focused on water and energy efficiency by 2035.
Uzbekistan also put forward the creation of a coordination mechanism within the SCO to address food, water and energy security — three issues the Tashkent government has repeatedly flagged as interconnected vulnerabilities across Central Asia. Complementing that proposal, Uzbekistan called for the development of an open, multilingual SCO data corpus to support the organisation’s work.
The Dushanbe meeting marks one of the more substantive sets of proposals Tashkent has tabled at an SCO heads-of-government session, spanning institutional architecture, industrial policy, digital governance and resource security in a single package. Whether member states advance any of the initiatives to formal agreement will depend on follow-up negotiations among capitals.