Ministry of Foreign Affairs denies info on land lease to China

The information circulated by a number of media about leasing a plot of Kazakhstani land to Chinese farmers is invalid, Mukhtar Tleuberdy, vice foreign minister of RK, said on 8 January at a press conference in Astana.

In particular, "information that a Kazakhstani official concluded a contract on a plot of land, which he had suggested to sublease to three thousand Chinese farmers" was published in a Chinese newspaper, vice minister explained. "After a review through diplomatic channels the Ministry of Foreign Affairs may state confidently that there has not been such agreement," M. Tleuberdi.

All land lease issues are resolved at the government level, vice minister observed. "We suppose, that it is a right time to make meaning perfectly plain and to dispel rumors", he declared.

Let us remind, that China Daily reported about an intention of China to lease 17.3 ths. acre of land (42.7 ths. ha) for farm enterprises on the territory of Kazakhstan. The article said that an agreement on land lease in the area of Alakol had been signed for a term of 10 years. The amount and the effective date of the agreement have not been mentioned in the article. At the same time the Chinese journalists said that around three thousand Chinese farmers were going to be sent to Kazakhstan for cultivating soya, wheat and other agricultural crops as well as for cattle breeding.