Kazakhstan

Jordan and Kazakhstan are considering a joint venture to produce grain in Kazakh territories to secure the Kingdom's needs at fair prices.

South Korea's state-run agriculture trading corporation says that it aims to set up an international grain purchasing and distribution company that can invest directly in foreign farms or control stakes in agricultural operations.

Despite government assurances, the possibility that China could possess Kazakhstani territory leaves many citizens skittish

Many see the desire for Kazakhstani agricultural land as another tentacle of Beijing's creeping imperialism

"They (the government) borrowed $13 billion from China and now they want to pay it back with our land," Bolat Abilov, a leader of the opposition party Azat, said at the rally. “No Chinese soya beans on the Kazakh land!” shouted one protester.

Several hundred people have gathered in the Kazakh city of Almaty to protest against what they call "Chinese expansionism".

Mr Massimov said Kazakhstan was negotiating an agreement with China to fund farming projects in Kazakhstan. “We are not giving China any land. The land code forbids it. But if we have a buyer [for crops], be it China or Arabia, then let’s sell,” he said.

Glencore's agricultural interests include 300,000 hectares of land in Australia, Kazakhstan, Paraguay, Russia and Ukraine.

The head of state at the last session of the Council of Foreign Investors informed that China had requested to lease 1 million hectares of Kazakh farmland for cultivation of rape and soya. According to A. Evniev, "It is not a lease, it is a question of joint manufacture. In this case, it is soya and later it will be corn and rape."

Kazakhstan will not "sell" land to China, Kazakh Prime Minister Karim Massimov has announced

Dozens of Kazakh activists staged a protest today in front of the Chinese Embassy in Almaty against the planned leasing of Kazakh land to China, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports.

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