Agriculture will become an important direction for future cooperation between China and Northeast Asia

At the 10th China Yanji·Tumen River Region International Investment and Trade Fair (abbreviated as the Tumen Fair) held in Yanji City, Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, agricultural cooperation became an important part of the content. Government officials and entrepreneur representatives from Russia, South Korea, Japan, China and other Northeast Asian countries brought a large number of agricultural cooperation projects and reached a great deal of consensus.

In recent years, encouraged by China's accelerated agricultural “going global” strategy, Chinese agricultural enterprises have accelerated the pace of overseas investment, and China's cooperation with Northeast Asian countries including Russia has already seen much exploration.

Jilin Province Overseas Agricultural Investment and Development Group Co., Ltd. is one of the earliest enterprises in the province to engage in overseas agricultural cooperation and development. It has successively invested in and established overseas grain planting bases in Russia and other countries, growing rice, corn, soybeans and other crops in Russia.

On December 3, 2013, 30,000 tons of rice grown on leased land by Jilin Province in the Russian Far East passed smoothly through the customs at the Hunchun Port in Jilin Province. This was the first time since the founding of New China that Jilin Province achieved the batch return shipment of overseas self-produced rice, marking a breakthrough progress in Jilin Province's overseas agricultural development work.

Li Shuqiang, director of the Overseas Office of the Jilin Province Agricultural Commission, believes that developing grain production in Russia has both driven local employment and increased tax revenue, and is a good thing of mutual benefit and win-win results.

Along with the gradual advancement of Russia's “looking east” strategy, the development of Russia's vast Far Eastern land also requires the participation and support of Northeast Asian countries. At this Tumen Fair, the Russian delegation brought numerous agricultural cooperation projects, hoping to find partners from Northeast Asian countries.

Brezhnev·Vladimir·Borisovich, chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Primorsky Krai, Russia, said that Russia hopes all countries will join in Far Eastern agricultural development and cooperation, and that developing the underdeveloped Far East and Siberia regions is suitable for developing eco-agricultural production oriented toward China and other Asia-Pacific countries, especially grain, feed and meat production, as well as freshwater and marine aquaculture.

In September 2013, China approved the establishment of a national-level agricultural science and technology park in Yanbian Prefecture. This is the only national-level agricultural science and technology park within the Changjitu Development and Opening-up Pilot Zone, fully building platforms for scientific and technological innovation and transformation, new industry incubation, and the clustering of high-tech enterprises.

Jin Jinan, director of the Management Committee of the Jilin Yanbian National Agricultural Science and Technology Park, introduced that according to the park's overall plan, the park consists of three parts: the core zone, the demonstration zone and the radiation zone. The radiation zone covers the surrounding areas of the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, including nearby domestic areas such as Mudanjiang City, Jilin City and Baishan City, as well as nearby foreign areas such as Russia and North Korea. The establishment of the park has attracted a large number of merchants from Japan, South Korea and other countries and from the Taiwan region of China to come for inspections and investment.

It is introduced that the park is building a China-North Korea border mutual trade zone project. Relying on North Korea's advantageous conditions such as marine product resources, agricultural and sideline product resources, ecological resources and mineral resources, the project accelerates the construction of import and export processing zones, brings in North Korea's rich marine resources such as pollution-free crabs, shellfish, fish and shrimp, and builds the largest fresh and live seafood trading area in the Yanbian region to meet the demand of China's consumer market for high-quality seafood.

Some exhibitors and government officials predict that against the backdrop of the gradual deepening of cooperative development among Northeast Asian countries, and based on the real needs of Northeast Asian countries, the strong momentum of agricultural cooperation will continue and may become an important direction and field of Northeast Asian cooperation in the future.