Innovative, Objective, Practical
Overview
At present, the global geopolitical and economic landscape is undergoing profound adjustments. Unilateralism and trade protectionism are on the rise, and cross-border financial risks have increased significantly. The member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are confronted with challenges such as a large infrastructure financing gap, heavy reliance on traditional payment systems, and inadequate regional financing mechanisms.
The 2025 SCO Summit in Tianjin reached an important political consensus on the establishment of the SCO Development Bank, marking a critical step in transitioning SCO financial cooperation from a loose interbank coordination model toward a substantive operational mechanism.
On July 29, 2026, China Development Institute (CDI) hosted the SCO Think Tank Webinar, bringing together think tank and policy experts from SCO member states to conduct in-depth discussions on key topics such as financial rule alignment, the mechanism design of the development bank, and the prospects for regional financial cooperation, in order to provide intellectual support for deepening SCO financial cooperation and advancing the development bank from an initiative into reality.
Debates
1. What opportunities, challenges, and feasible pathways exist for aligning financial rules among SCO member states?
2. How should the establishment of SCO development bank draw on the experiences of institutions like the AIIB and the BRICS New Development Bank to better provide autonomous financing tools for major regional infrastructure construction, energy projects, and the development of small and medium-sized enterprises?
3. How can a convenient, low-cost, and highly secure regional local currency settlement network be constructed to gradually reduce dependence on external currencies such as the US dollar, thereby enhancing the resilience of regional financial and trade cooperation?
Organizer: CDI
Date and Time: 29 Jul 2026 15:00-17:00 Beijing Time (GMT+8)
Background
In recent years, the digital economy has emerged as an engine driving global economic growth, profoundly reshaping the landscape of connectivity, competition and cooperation among nations.
Under the framework of the China-Indonesia Comprehensive Strategic Partnership, the two countries have continued to deepen practical cooperation in the digital sector, yielding positive progress and fruitful results in cloud infrastructure, e-commerce, fintech, intelligent manufacturing, smart livelihood services and other fields.
Such cooperation has not only strongly supported Indonesia in enhancing its digital sovereignty, technological self-reliance and overall industrial competitiveness, but also provided opportunities for Chinese technologies, solutions, standard systems to engage in Indonesia's digital development. It has helped elevate China-Indonesia digital economy cooperation to a higher level. To further deepen bilateral exchanges and mutual learning in the digital sector, China Development Institute and The Association of Indonesia-China Economic, Social and Cultural Cooperation held Indonesia-China Digital Economy Forum in Jakarta on 11 June 2026.
Objectives
Policy Alignment: Align Indonesia's development blueprints of "Industry 4.0" and "Golden Indonesia 2045" with China's "Digital Silk Road" Initiative, and facilitate the alignment of the two countries' strategic plans.
Industrial Cooperation: Focus on key areas including Indonesia's digital infrastructure, enterprise digital transformation, AI governance in ASEAN countries and digital talent cobuilding.
Experience Exchange: Deepen experience sharing and practical cooperation between China and Indonesia in the digital economy sector, and jointly develop some implementable, replicable and scalable benchmark projects and cases.
Organizers
China Development Institute and Association of Indonesia-China Economic, Social and Cultural Cooperation
Co-Organizer
Belt and Road Initiative Caucus for Asia Pacific
