India calls for lifting trade and investment barriers in Shanghai Cooperation zone

India today called improving regional connectivity among countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) zone, in order to break barriers that inhibit trade and investment flows among these countries.

Speaking at the inaugural meeting of the SCO heads of government at St Petersburg in Russia, union power minister Sushilkumar Shinde who represented India said the SCO should address the problem of limited connectivity through regional solutions.

India, he said, was ready to cooperate to find viable solutions to this problem and contribute to the endeavour to build bridges between Central and South Asia.

He said regional cooperation is important as those nations that have short-term problems of inability are more prone to be affected the spillover effects of the euro zone sovereign debt crisis.

He said that in a globally interconnected world, the SCO region cannot remain unaffected by such developments, the minister said, adding that as nations deal with the short term problems of instability, they must also face the challenge of engineering a broad-based recovery and sustainable growth both in industrialised and developing economies.

Yet, he said, the SCO countries are strengthened by the complementarities of their resources and must find the most suitable path to growth for themselves.