SCO education ministers to hold meeting in Novosibirsk.

23/9 Tass 26

NOVOSIBIRSK, September 23 (Itar-Tass) - Education ministers of member
countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), including
Russian Education and Science Minister Andrei Fursenko, on Thursday will
hold a meeting in Novosibirsk.
The government of the Novosibirsk region told Itar-Tass that the first
event of the summit is the international scientific-practical conference
"SCO University: from Integration to Innovation Development." SCO
University is a network project uniting higher educational establishments
of the organisation's member states. Then the ministers will separately
discuss issues of the development of the regulatory framework,
methodological and information support, exchange of personnel within the
framework of activities of SCO University.
Novosibirsk has already hosted a forum of the Shanghai Cooperation
Organisation - meetings of the heads of the national Academies of Sciences
of SCO countries. The leading scientists determined the priority joint
research, including nanotechnologies and biotechnologies, geological
prospecting of energy resources, thermal engineering, laser technologies,
ecology and scientific educational programmes.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation brings together Kazakhstan,
China, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
SCO is an intergovernmental mutual-security organisation which was
founded in 2001 in Shanghai by the leaders of China, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. Except for Uzbekistan, the
other countries had been members of the Shanghai Five, founded in 1996;
after the inclusion of Uzbekistan in 2001, the members renamed the
organisation.
The Council of Heads of State is the top decision-making body in the
SCO. This council meets at the SCO summits, which are held each year in
one of the member states' capital cities. The current Council of Heads of
State consists of:
Roza Otunbaeva (acting head of state) (Kyrgyzstan), Hu Jintao (People'
s Republic of China), Islam Karimov (Uzbekistan), Nursultan Nazarbayev
(Kazakhstan), Dmitry Medvedev (Russia), Emomali Rakhmon (Tajikistan).
The Council of Heads of Government is the second-highest council in
the organisation. This council also holds annual summits, at which time
members discuss issues of multilateral cooperation. The council also
approves the organisation's budget. The council of Foreign Ministers also
hold regular meetings, where they discuss the current international
situation and the SCO's interaction with other international organisations.
-0-ezh/ast