Murat Sheyitnepesov, Chairman of the Pan-Caspian Association, Visits the Platform

Shanghai Cooperation Organization Time  

On April 23, 2026, Hu Kaiqiang, Secretary-General of the Multifunctional Economic and Trade Platform of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Member States and Deputy Director of the Committee on Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan Affairs, Overseas Chinese Affairs, and Foreign Affairs of the Chongqing Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, met with a delegation led by Murat Sheyitnepesov, President of the Pan-Caspian Association. Wen Jixu, Secretary-General of the Platform, accompanied the meeting.

As both Chair of the Caspian Week Forum Organizing Committee and Founder and Board Chair of Integral Group, Sheytnepesov highly commended the platform’s positive contributions to advancing subnational economic and trade cooperation as well as people-to-people and cultural exchanges among SCO member states, and provided an overview of the Greater Caspian Association’s development. He noted that the Greater Caspian Association (GCA), established in 2016 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, is a non-profit organization dedicated to fostering global connectivity and development across the Greater Caspian region. The GCA’s work spans multiple domains, including facilitating business, research, and cultural linkages between the region and the rest of the world, promoting innovation and technological application, and supporting the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The GCA’s flagship annual event is the Caspian Week Forum, which serves as a global dialogue platform connecting policymakers, business leaders, academics, and innovators from the region. Sheytnepesov emphasized that on April 22, a GCA delegation visited the Secretariat of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and held in-depth talks with SCO Deputy Secretary-General Dai Sizhe. During the meeting, the two sides exchanged views on priority areas for economic and trade cooperation, covering logistics, finance, innovation, and the advancement of digitalization, and reached consensus on further expanding collaboration. Sheytnepesov underscored that the GCA seeks to establish a robust coordination mechanism with the platform to deepen the implementation of specific cooperative initiatives under the SCO’s overarching framework, thereby jointly driving more substantial outcomes in subnational economic and trade cooperation between the Greater Caspian region and SCO member states.

Hu Kaiqiang pointed out that the platform is committed to upholding the “Shanghai Spirit” and thoroughly implementing the resolutions adopted at previous Councils of Heads of State of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Centered on the core mission of “building a new SCO ecosystem characterized by the deep integration of the digital and traditional economies,” the platform leverages industry-specific working committees to bring together market entities of diverse ownership structures, thereby fostering an innovative, collaboratively driven industrial ecosystem among SCO member states led by Chinese enterprises serving as “chain leaders.” This initiative aims to support local governments in attracting investment and business, break down barriers to cooperation among enterprises of different ownership types, explore the establishment of “SCO standards,” and lay the foundation for a global realignment of productive forces. He emphasized that strengthening regional economic synergy is a key consensus among the heads of state of the SCO member states. The platform stands ready to work closely with the Caspian Sea Region Association to jointly establish cooperative mechanisms, set up dedicated task forces, and collectively promote the prosperous development of the Greater Caspian region, thus contributing to the building of a closer SCO community with a shared future and a community with a shared future for mankind.

During this period, the platform signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Pan-Caspian Association and held a signing ceremony.

Wen Jixu chaired the symposium, presenting the platform’s innovative operational model and its achievements in construction and development, with a particular focus on sharing successful cases of international cooperation involving the platform’s relevant working committees. The two sides engaged in in-depth exchanges on topics of mutual interest and reached broad consensus.

Dr. Claude Begle, a member of the SA Board of Directors, Executive Chairman and CEO of SymbioSwiss, and former Member of the Swiss Federal Assembly; Bayram Shetnepesov, General Manager of Globalex Trading DMCC; Gadham Chariev, Business Development Manager at SA; Guliya, Assistant to the President and Coordinator for International Cooperation and Partnerships at the Pan-Caspian Association; Jiang Min, Deputy Director of the Platform’s Project Expansion Department; Fu Liang, Head of the Preparatory Group for the Platform’s Inland–Maritime Connectivity Working Committee; as well as relevant personnel from both sides, attended the symposium.