This photo shows light poles adorned with banners marking the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025 in Binhai New Area, north China’s Tianjin. --Photo Xinhua/Zhao Zishuo

SCO cooperation in full swing, offers impetus to global economy

(Xinhua) -- Driven by booming cross-border shopping and tourism, the bustling China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Centre has in recent weeks seen surging cross-border personnel movements with daily crossings surpassing 30,000.
As of July 11, over 5 million cross-border personnel movements had been made through the 5.6-square-kilometre centre this year, up 73 percent year on year. The center is partly located in Horgos of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and partly in Kazakhstan.
As a demonstration area on regional cooperation under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), the centre has witnessed ever-growing economic and trade ties among the members of the organisation, which was established 24 years ago by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
With 10 member states, 2 observer states and 14 dialogue partners, the SCO now represents nearly half of the world’s population, a quarter of the global landmass and about a quarter of global GDP. Since its inception in 2001, the SCO has grown into a comprehensive regional organisation that contributes certainty and vitality to an often volatile global economic landscape, analysts noted.
As leaders from Asia, Europe and Africa will gather in the northern Chinese port city of Tianjin on Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 for the largest-ever SCO summit in history, it is expected that the meeting will chart the blueprint for the group’s future development and contribute more vitality to the world economy.
In the Chinese section of the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Centre, more than 2,000 stores, including over 200 duty-free ones, offer more than 1,000 types of goods from over 40 countries. Each tourist is allowed to purchase duty-free goods up to 8,000 yuan (about US$1,125) per day.
“Products such as chocolates from Kazakhstan and the traditional hats of China’s Kazak ethnic group are especially popular,” said Lin Zixuan, a business owner at the center, noting that her daily revenue reaches up to 100,000 yuan on peak days.
Robust trade vitality at the centre epitomises the growing economic and trade ties between China and other SCO members in recent years, with cooperation spanning across sectors including infrastructure, energy, agriculture and technology.
In 2024 alone, China’s trade with other SCO members hit 3.65 trillion yuan, 36.3 times the level recorded when the organisation was established.

(Latest Update August 29, 2025)