Aziz Nosirov, SCO's deputy secretary-general, said because the economic growth of many SCO members relies heavily on commodity trade, some are suffering losses from the low prices of many goods in the global market.

He said all member states should take bigger steps toward promoting trade and investment facilitation and liberalization.

"It is important for member states to expand trade volume, improve trade structure, adopt common measures, and simplify business, customs, quality inspection and transport policies," said Nosirov.

Qian Keming, vice-minister of commerce, said the country would push forward the creation of a regional connectivity network, helped by the building of 4,000 kilometers of railways and more than 10,000 km of roads over the next few years.

Commerce and economy ministers gathered in Xi'an, meanwhile, and called for closer cooperation in investment, production capacity, equipment and infrastructure development, as well as cooperation zones.

Sun Zhuangzhi, secretary-general of the SCO research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said: "These new moves will embody tangible efforts linking growth centers such as Beijing, Moscow and St Petersburg, and developing new growth hubs such as Tashkent and Dushanbe (the capitals and largest cities of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, respectively), and Almaty (the largest city in Kazakhstan) in the region."

Eager to promote regional trade, a regional goods exhibition is being held in Xi'an between Sept 24 and 26 to showcase the members' pillar products, from agricultural goods to telecommunications and solar power generation equipment.