China Plans to Grow Tobacco in Crimea

Source from:  The Moscow Times 06/05/2015

The Crimean government said Thursday that a visiting delegation of Chinese businessmen had pledged to invest in local industry and tobacco cultivation as the territory, annexed by Russia last year, fights to win foreign investment amid sweeping economic sanctions by Western countries.

"Tobacco is in huge demand in China, and Crimea has a suitable climate and soil for tobacco cultivation," news agency TASS quoted the delegation's leader, Chen Zhijun, as saying at a meeting with Crimean leader Sergei Aksyonov. With the help of Chinese equipment and technology the venture could yield "very large revenues," Chen added, according to the agency.

Chen, who is chairman of the board at China International Energy Group, said Chinese investors were also keen to invest in canning and machine building factories in Dzhankoy in northern Crimea and a golf club on the peninsula's mountainous southern coast, according to a press release on the Crimean government's website.

TASS reported Wednesday that the Chinese delegation had agreed to invest in energy projects in Crimea.

Concrete deals are so far not on the table, however: Aksyonov and Chen on Thursday signed only a protocol on investment cooperation, according to the press release. Endirtem