Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS May 20, 1997

Urumqi Xinjiang Ribao, 03/06/97, article by Ceng Tao:

"Hong Kong Business Awarded Contract on Nearly 20,000 Mu of 102nd

Regiment Farm's Land"

A contract on all the land of an agricultural military company has been

awarded to a Hong Kong business for its operations, a first in the

history of PLA [People's Liberation Army] Corps agricultural

development. On 12 January, Chang Ch'eng [1728 2110], chairman of the

board of the Manpang International Development Company, Ltd., and Zhang

Xiaoping [1728 2556 1627], chairman of the board of the Jilike

Development Company, Ltd., formally signed with Zhang Linze [1728 2651

3419] a "two-way provision for land operation."

A total of 5,000 mu of cultivated land and a total of 14,300 mu of

abandoned cultivated land that can be recovered and utilized--all

belonging to the 16th Company of the 102nd Regiment Farm--will for the

next 30 years be operated under contract by the newly formed

Mapang-Jilike Industrial Company, Ltd. Ding Wenbin [0002 2429 2430],

deputy corps commander, and Hua Shifei [5478 1102 7378], the Sixth

Agricultural Division's standing committee secretary and political

commissar, attended the signing ceremony. The Notarization Office

notarized the contract, which thus became effective.

This Hong Kong business, after more than one month of on-the-spot

surveys and repeated consultations, reached an agreement that the

purpose of the 30-year contract for the land of the 16th Company, 102nd

Regiment Farm, is to engage in the overall operational activities of

cultivation, raising, and processing. Based on the state's laws and

regulations and on the autonomous region's and corps' policies, the

sides, in line with the principles of mutual benefit and reciprocity,

mutual understanding, lawful operations, mutual support, joint

development, and equality and free will, contract the 16th Company's

19,300 mu of land.

The contract takes the form of a determinate base, which increases by

stages, and guarantees a turnover to the state of contract expenses,

operates on one's own initiative, assumes sole responsibility for

profit and loss, and two-party payment for operations. Within the

30-year contract time limit, there are established the two parties'

rights, interests, and obligations, as well as their responsibility for

breaking the contract. Corps Deputy Commander Ding Wenbing maintained

that agriculture is one of the investment industries with the most

prospects and highest profits.

The 102nd Regiment Farm's facilitation of the terms of this contract

adds impetus to the formation of a tide of foreign business investment

in agriculture, causing floating capital to flow toward agricultural

and industrial activities in the west, and making certain that there is

a climate tolerant to investment.

Chang Ch'eng, chairman of the board of the Hong Kong business, also

thinks that this was a gratifying first step for his business to invest

in Xinjiang's agricultural development, and that it tallies with the

state's major policy of tilting toward the west. He expressed full

confidence in the 102nd Regiment Farm's operation of the land

contract.