Penza, 27 October 2014. PenzaNews. The Penza region governor Vasily Bochkarev explained his recently increased activity towards Chinese investors by saying they are needed to revive abandoned crop lands.

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“We need the Chinese to get all the land back in the rotation, as well as the factories, which are empty, and, of course, there is import substitution question. Due to the current foreign policy, we need to work with Turkey, Israel and China,” Vasily Bochkarev said during a press conference on the results of the working visit to China’s Sichuan province, on Monday, October 27.

Commenting on the most prominent results achieved in the course of bilateral meetings in China, Penza governor mentioned an agreement signed with the province.

“Our main interest in China is their investment in the Penza region and possible export of certain products, such as Biosintez medicine, valving by ‘Tyazhpromarmatura,’ and other products that can be sold on Chinese market,” the head of the region said.

In addition, Vasily Bochkarev noted one more important area of cooperation — the influx of new foreign students to Penza universities.

Another important objective of the negotiations indicated by the governor before the trip to China was the development of duck meat production in the Penza region.

“During the visit we had an opportunity to visit one of the enterprises, where a certain part of the product belongs to the company, and most of it is supplied by local farmers. This factory is located in the industrial park and has its own feed mill and hatchery. However, I think that this business can be created only in the presence of a reliable and honest farmer or peasant farms. If we try to apply this pattern in Russia, we will continuously fail each other — either the price will not be satisfactory, or there will come another buyer with a better price, and the farmer shifts to Tambov, unwilling to perform the contract, and so on. We need a change of business culture,” Vasily Bochkarev said.

However, he noted that the issue of duck business in the Penza region was discussed, and the region must determine the local project partners.

In general, Vasily Bochkarev said that Penza delegation saw that the governor of Sichuan province has a great desire to work with the Russian region.

“Now, the main thing for us is not to procrastinate. And our task as authorities is to urge the real sector of the economy to work,” the head of the region concluded.