Kazakhstan won’t Lease Land to China - Yevniyev

    Kazakhstan does not intend to lease its land to China, but rather plans to create joint agricultural production facilities, Vice Minister of Agriculture Armand Yevniyev, said in an interview with journalists after a meeting on national agriculture development, Kazakhstan Today reports.
    The head of state at the last session of the Council of Foreign Investors had indicated China made a request to lease 1 million hectares of farmland for the cultivation of rapeseed and soya.
    According to Yevniyev, "This is not a lease, but is rather joint production. This will first deal with soya, and later -- corn and rapeseed," he specified.
    "The co-production project will start in beginning 2010," he said, according to Kazakhstan Today.