New Zealand Prime Minister John Key will pay an official visit to Vietnam from July 10-12 at an invitation of his Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung.

PM John Key’s first visit to the Southeast Asian country since he took office in November 2008 is expected to help strengthen the friendship and comprehensive cooperation between the two countries, especially at a time when Vietnam and New Zealand are celebrating the 35th anniversary of their diplomatic ties.

Vietnam and New Zealand set up diplomatic ties on June 19, 1975 and have seen developments in their friendship and multifaceted cooperation.

The two countries established the comprehensive partnership during the visit to New Zealand by Party General Secretary Nong Duc Manh in September 2009. They are working hard to complete the action plan for the 2010-2013 period to actualise the relations.

Both countries often maintain high-ranking delegation exchanges. The most recent visits were made by New Zealand’s Foreign Minister in January 2010 and Vietnam’s National Assembly Vice Chairman Uong Chu Luu last month.

Two-way trade has increased steadily over recent years, from 187.8 million USD in 2001 to 320 million USD in 2009. By the end of April 2010, the value had reached 127 million USD, of which imports were reported 104 million USD.

Vietnam exports wood, wooden products, footwear, machinery, equipment, cashew nut, garments, coffee, fine arts and plastic products to New Zealand and imports milk and milk products (accounting for 56 percent of total value), wood and wooden products, footwear and garment materials.

New Zealand ratified the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA) and recognised Vietnam’s market economy in February 2009.

The Oceanian country also signed two letters on receiving Vietnamese cooks and engineers, and holiday workers. The two countries have completed talks on New Zealand’s reception of 100 skilled cooks and 100 engineers from Vietnam for a 3-year-working term.

In addition, negotiation on recruiting 100 Vietnamese workers under a holiday working scheme is underway.

By May 2010, New Zealand had invested in 18 projects in education, industry, processing, finance-banking, insurance, agriculture and seafood in Vietnam with total registered capital of 96.3 million USD, ranking 38 th out of the 91 countries and territories investing in the Southeast Asian country.

Vietnam and New Zealand signed an education and training cooperation agreement in 2008. Currently, there are about 2,500 Vietnamese students studying in New Zealand.

New Zealand started to provide its official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam in 1995./.