OREANDA-NEWS. December 08, 2010. China proposed investing USD 8 billion to set up a development bank with Russia and other member nations of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), who would contribute a combined USD 2 billion, the 21st Century Business Herald reported.

The proposal's prospects remain unclear because Russia "didn't respond with enthusiasm," the newspaper said, without elaborating. State-funded banks from SCO members already cooperate in what is called the Interbank Consortium.

The SCO was set up in 2001 by China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan to promote cooperation in politics, trade, economy, and energy.

China's Premier Wen Jiabao said on 25 November that member states should discuss the establishment of a development bank to broaden channels of commercial financing, according to a statement posted on the government's website.

The bank would fund energy exploration and infrastructure projects such as oil and gas pipelines, the newspaper said. The Interbank Consortium was set up in 2005 between the Development Bank of Kazakhstan, the State Development Bank of China, the Bank for Development and Foreign Economic Affairs of Russia, the National Bank of Tajikistan and the National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of Uzbekistan, according to the SCO Website.