ALMATY: The current global financial crisis can actually boost the economic activity of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a Kazakh expert on political affairs said.

The regional body needs to change its model of operation in order to launch cooperative projects on a large scale in Central Asia, Konstantin Syroezhkin, chief researcher at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies, told Chinese media on Saturday.

Syroezhkin said the future of the SCO depends on the role the regional body takes in the current financial crisis.