Heilongjiang Lures Taiwan InvestmentHeilongjiang Province in northeast China, known as China's largest "granary", has become a new magnet for investors in agriculture from Taiwan, according to sources with the Cross-Straits Agricultural Co-operation Seminar, which opened in Harbin Sunday.The province was designated last year, along with some other provinces, to initiate zones for cross-straits cooperation with the aim of improving Chinese farm produce competition internationally. Wang Xianmin, vice-governor of Heilongjiang, today told the three-day seminar that 43 joint-venture agricultural projects were set up in the province last year, with 26.9 million US dollars of investment. The projects have introduced investment, quality seed strains and advanced agricultural techniques from Taiwan. More Taiwan investors are eyeing the farm produce processing industry in Heilongjiang, Wang said. So far, the province has approved 750 Taiwan-funded agricultural projects, involving 900 million US dollars. Heilongjiang with fertile black soil, a large area of grassland, well preserved natural forests and wetland, is China's largest grain producer. Its annual grain production capacity has reached 30 billion kg, 65 percent of which sold on the market. |
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