Shanghai Railway Workers Organization

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will set up a working group on rail transport research. This may happen as early as next year. This decision was taken at the fifth meeting of heads of railway administrations of the organization's member states in Moscow.

The meeting was initiated by JSCo “Russian Railways”. It was attended by heads and senior officials of railroads and railroad departments of Russia, Belarus, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Pakistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Also present were Sohail Khan, Deputy Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and Bakhtiyor Khakimov, Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for SCO Affairs.

 

The participants discussed how the decisions of the previous meeting, which was held on May 10, 2023 in New Delhi (India), are being implemented and updated the joint work plans with a focus on the introduction of the latest technologies, development of international transport corridors, digitalization and ensuring transportation safety. There was also a constructive discussion of the Uzbek side's initiative on a new format of integration of the SCO railroads.

“The SCO countries account for almost two-thirds of global rail freight turnover. This scale gives our railroad community tremendous opportunities for further fruitful cooperation and achievement of joint goals,” Oleg Belozerov, General Director and Chairman of the Management Board of JSCo ‘Russian Railways’, said in his speech.

He emphasized that it is impossible to achieve the ambitious goals set for the SCO railroads without introducing new scientific approaches and technologies. “Russian Railways is implementing a number of comprehensive projects aimed at introducing modern digital technologies. “We are ready to participate in the formation of joint initiatives in the field of new science-intensive technologies with the railroads of the SCO countries,” said the head of the holding company.

Oleg Belozerov noted the important role of international transportation corridors in ensuring regional connectivity and competitiveness of the SCO economies. He informed the participants of the meeting about the work of Russian Railways in forming sustainable transport links and organizing international traffic along key corridors in Russia.

In recent years, the focus of cooperation within the SCO, which includes Russia and a number of its key trading partners, has increasingly shifted from politics and security to economics, says Grigory Mikhailov, editor-in-chief of Logistan.info. Rail transportation volumes with Iran, China, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are steadily growing. This benefits all participants and challenges them to eliminate bottlenecks in logistics and fully utilize the available potential. “There are many opportunities for this. These include the build-up of cargo transportation along the China-EU route, the development of the North-South ITC, and projects to build railroads linking Russia with India and Pakistan,” the analyst says.

According to Alexander Karavaev, an expert at the Caspian Institute for Strategic Studies, the logic of further development of cooperation within the SCO envisages a transition from bi- and trilateral agreements and memorandums of railway carriers of the organization's member countries to a certain collective body that will harmonize decisions taken at the local level.