Joint venture and joint operation projects between North Korea and China have been brisk throughout North Korea since leader Kim Jong Un’s visit to Beijing. Chinese businesses and individual investors have been visiting Pyongyang, the Pyongan provinces, Hamgyong provinces and elsewhere and actively pushing joint ventures and joint operations.
According to Daily NK sources in North Korea, the latest activities are part of the so-called 20 x 10 regional development policy currently pushed by North Korean authorities and focus on regional rejuvenation and rural development.
The Organization and Guidance Department of the Central Committee earlier this month officially ordered the organizational departments of provincial party committees and provincial people’s committees to restart joint operation and joint venture projects with China. Accordingly, local authorities immediately went into motion, with the organizational departments assuming overall management of projects and the foreign affairs bureaus of provincial people’s committees conducting practical negotiations with Chinese businesses and investors.
“This effort is being welcomed as the central government granting regional authorities some authority to push foreign investment projects,” a source in North Pyongan province said. “The authorities are conducting projects by marrying local resources, land and labor with Chinese capital.”
Projects are divided into three forms: new contracts, restarting or expanding operations, and private investment.
“New contracts” are fresh deals for joint operations or joint ventures signed after Kim visited Beijing, while “restarting or expanding operations” are projects that were suspended due to COVID-19 but have recommenced and expanded due to Kim’s visit. “Private investment” projects are a bit experimental and involve individual Chinese investors who have invested after personally visiting and inspecting sites in North Korea.
Projects might be classified into three types, but the joint operations and joint ventures usually involve the Chinese side investing capital, technology and equipment, with the North Korean side providing the land, labor and administrative permissions.
At Tokhyon Mine in Uiju county, North Pyongan province, mining operations are underway with excavation equipment and supplies brought in from China through a joint venture. At September General Iron Enterprise, an ironworks connected to the mine, several Chinese technicians are on the ground to transfer technology. The organizational department of North Pyongan province’s party committee manages these efforts as “provincial mining joint venture trial projects.”
In Pyongyang’s Hyonjesan district, a large Chinese construction equipment company is building production facilities for concrete and building supplies in the form of a joint venture. People believe this is an attempt to lower dependence on imports of supplies needed for housing construction in the North Korean capital and build self-sufficient systems, the source said.
Agricultural ventures expand
Obvious moves to build joint operations and joint ventures are also underway in the agricultural sector. In rural regions suffering low productivity such as Songchon county, South Pyongan province, and Hamju county, South Hamgyong province, private Chinese investors have personally visited to examine the land and are pushing projects to restore the soil and build supply warehouses. This is emerging as an experimental model to attract individual investors.
North Korea appears to be promoting regional self-sufficiency by attracting Chinese capital. “Officials say the party wants to establish these projects as a new provincial development strategy,” a source in Pyongyang said. “In particular, economy officials believe the effort could be an important stage to test the operational direction of the national economy over the next 10 years.”
A source in North Pyongan province said he believes that with technicians coming from China, equipment already on the ground and operating, and more of both on the way, “the higher-ups have issued an order to quickly take care of administrative procedures.” He added that people “increasingly look forward to more work and more food.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: dailynk.com
