Overseas plantations

Chinese companies are already involved in developing overseas plantations for a variety of natural resources. From Southeast Asia to Africa, Chinese companies have snapped up contracts for cultivating sugarcane, teak, oil palm, eucalyptus, cassava, corn and other crops.

Media reports say the Chinese telecommunications giant, ZTE International, has acquired more than 7 million acres of forest land in Congo to plant oil palms. In Zimbabwe, state-owned China International Water and Electric Corporation is said to have got rights from the government to farm 2,50,000 acres of corn. Indonesia is reportedly discussing bio-fuel plantation development with the China National Overseas Oil Corporation.

The debate in Beijing is now about developing a comprehensive framework for Chinese agricultural companies to venture out for the production of foodgrain and other agricultural commodities. This would necessarily involve both incentives and guarantees by the Chinese government.

The writer is professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore iscrmohan@ntu.edu.sg