The Crimea and China have signed a memorandum on implementation of a pilot integration project in the agro-industrial complex, the Crimean Council of Ministers’ department of information policy has announced.

The memorandum was signed during a visit to Beijing by Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Temirgaliev. The memorandum was also signed by the head of the Chinese Corporation for International Economic Cooperation and the head of the Sino-Ukrainian Association for International Projects.

Under the project, Chinese companies plan to invest in development and modernization of irrigation systems, including drip irrigation, introduce modern agricultural technologies in Ukraine, and develop agricultural storage and logistics complexes. The project also involves construction of a grain terminal at a Crimean port.

The project will be implemented by the Krymzernoprom company on the Crimean side and the State Corporation for International Economic Cooperation on the Chinese side. One of the largest banks in China will finance the project. "The Chinese side accepted the Crimean government’s demand that that only Crimean labor should be used and that the land used should retain the status of Ukrainian state-owned land,” the announcement said.

The Crimean Council of Ministers’ department of information policy did not specify when the relevant contracts will be signed.

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski recently said that he had information that China had set the signing of an Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU as its condition for providing financial and technological support to the Ukrainian agricultural sector. According to Sikorski, China is thus seeking to protect its investment better.

As reported, a memorandum on construction of a port was signed between Kievgidroinvest and BICIM (China) in Beijing on December 5, 2013. By all indications, the memorandum involves a project for creation of a seaport with a depth of 25 meters near Saki.

The owner of BICIM (Beijing Interoceanic Canal Investment Management Co., Ltd), businessman Wang Jing, is famous for stating his willingness to invest USD 50 billion in construction of a navigable canal in Nicaragua as an alternative to the Panama Canal.