President Tran Dai Quang (R) receives New Zealand Foreign Minister Muray McCully (Photo: VNA) He hoped bilateral trade will further increase, exceedingthe goal of 1.7 billion USD by 2020, and affirmed Vietnamis readies to roll out red carpet for New Zealand businesses to makestronger investment in the fields of their strength such as infrastructure,education-training, agriculture, processing industry, support industry andrenewable energy.
The President expressed his pleasure at the firm andstable comprehensive partnership between the two countries, which is expectedto be strategic partnership in the near future, thanks to regular high-leveldelegation exchanges of parties, states, governments and legislatures.
He welcomed the NewZealand Prime Minister to attend activities in the APECEconomic Leaders’ Meeting in the central coastal city of DaNang in November 2017, and proposed the two sides soon arrange timefor the visit to New Zealandby Vietnam’sNational Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.
President Quang hailed the outcomes of the talksbetween Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Minister Muray McCully.
The twocountries’ foreign ministries have maximised their efforts to boost bilateralcooperation proven by the signing of the Vietnam-New Zealand Action Programmein 2017-2020.
Bilateraldefence-security partnership has been thriving with the visit of the New Zealand naval ship to Da Nang port in early this month.
PresidentQuang proposed New Zealandincrease training of English and skills on peacekeeping activities for Vietnam as wellas support the Southeast Asian country to improve capacity for law enforcementat sea, share experience in addressing post-war bomb and mine consequences, andexpand collaboration in transnational crime prevention and combat.
He thanked New Zealand for providing official developmentassistance (ODA) for Vietnamand affirmed this source has been efficiently used for the country’ssocial-economic development and human resources quality improvement.
The Presidentshared that Vietnam ispushing ahead with industrialisation and modernisation, restructuring theeconomy and reforming the growth model, and enhancing trade and economiccooperation with regional countries with New Zealand as a priority.
He highlyvalued the effective coordination of the two countries at multilateral organisationsand forums such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) forum, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and the UnitedNations.
As Vietnam and New Zealand share a lot ofstrategic benefits in the region, the two nations should enhance cooperationand mutual support at multilateral organisations and forums to cope withregional and global challenges, he said.
For hispart, Minister McCully said during his talks with Deputy PM and FM Pham BinhMinh, the two sides agreed to boost bilateral cooperation across the fields andelevate the Vietnam-New Zealand relations to strategic partnership in two or threecoming years.
He affirmedthat New Zealand will supportVietnam to host the APECYear 2017, especially the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in DaNang, as well as advocate Vietnam to become a non-permanentmember of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure and take the role ofASEAN Chair in 2020.
The Ministerwelcomed Vietnam to improveits investment climate to draw foreign investors, saying New Zealand wants to step up trade, economic,and investment cooperation with Vietnamgiven the enormous opportunities from the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand freetrade agreement.
NewZealand also focuses on collaborating with Vietnam in the fields ofagriculture, education-training, security-defence, and supports the country inpeacekeeping activities and bomb-and-mine clearance.
The countryhas been actively increasing the imports of Vietnamese fruits, includingrambutans, he added.-VNA
VNA
