K. Tokayev: Agricultural lands will not be sold to foreign citizens

"Kazakhstan has great reserves of agricultural lands that can be productively used for the target purposes. It's tens of millions of hectares. In this regard, the Government, officials and non-governmental organizations have a lot of work on explanation of the meaning of the recently adopted amendments to the Land Core of Kazakhstan," Kassym-Jomart Tokayev told at the parliamentary hearings in the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan.

"We have to not just assure people that the lands of the country will be sold only the citizens of Kazakhstan. We have to make sure that this law is strictly observed and there is no way around. Moreover, the lands have to be used effectively and rationally," the Senate Speaker told.

"We also have examples of possession of lands up to one million hectares that the owners received loans for and now there are problems about disbursement of loans," he stressed.

"The WTO has to be an additional impetus for attraction of new strategic investors to the agricultural sector of Kazakhstan and increase of the agricultural production. We need to use our natural and geographical advantages to compete within the EEU and the WTO," K. Tokayev added.