960420

China woos

foreign investment

for agriculture

BEIJING: China hoped to attract up to $7.0 billion in foreign investment over the next five years to develop agriculture, the China Daily on Saturday quoted Vice-Premier Jiang Chunyun as saying.

The agricultural sector would open its domestic market futher and improve investment and trade environments to try to attract between $6 billion and $7 billion in overseas funds, Jiang told a seminar on agriculture on Friday.

China is struggling to increase food production to keep up with the demand of its growing population, which consumes more as it gets richer.

Western agriculture industry experts at the seminar said plans by the Chinese government to increase annual grain output by 175 million tonnes over the next 35 years were achievable. Grain output in 1995 was officially 465 million tonnes.

Grain yields in China are only 80 percent of those in the United States and 65 percent of those in Europe, they said.

Foreign expertise in high-yield crops and advanced fertilisers could lead to a significant improvement in China's grain output.

China's fertiliser production capacity is expected to increase to 170 million tonnes annually by the year 2000, the newspaper said.

Fertiliser output in 1995 was 114 million tonnes, up 12 percent from 1994 but still inadequate to meet farmers' demands.

Construction of fertiliser projects is the agricultural industry's top priority for the next five years, the newspaper quoted Chemical Industry Vice-Minister Li Yongwu as saying.-Reuter