President Tran Dai Quang (R) receives New Zealand Foreign Minister Muray McCully (Photo: VNA)He hoped bilateral trade will further increase, exceeding the goal of 1.7 billion USD by 2020, and affirmed Vietnam is readies to roll out red carpet for New Zealand businesses to make stronger investment in the fields of their strength such as infrastructure, education-training, agriculture, processing industry, support industry and renewable energy.
The President expressed his pleasure at the firm and stable comprehensive partnership between the two countries, which is expected to be strategic partnership in the near future, thanks to regular high-level delegation exchanges of parties, states, governments and legislatures.
He welcomed the New Zealand Prime Minister to attend activities in the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in the central coastal city of Da Nang in November 2017, and proposed the two sides soon arrange time for the visit to New Zealand by Vietnam’s National Assembly Chairwoman Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan.
President Quang hailed the outcomes of the talks between Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh and Minister Muray McCully.
The two countries’ foreign ministries have maximised their efforts to boost bilateral cooperation proven by the signing of the Vietnam-New Zealand Action Programme in 2017-2020.
Bilateral defence-security partnership has been thriving with the visit of the New Zealand naval ship to Da Nang port in early this month.
President Quang proposed New Zealand increase training of English and skills on peacekeeping activities for Vietnam as well as support the Southeast Asian country to improve capacity for law enforcement at sea, share experience in addressing post-war bomb and mine consequences, and expand collaboration in transnational crime prevention and combat.
He thanked New Zealand for providing official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam and affirmed this source has been efficiently used for the country’s social-economic development and human resources quality improvement.
The President shared that Vietnam is pushing ahead with industrialisation and modernisation, restructuring the economy and reforming the growth model, and enhancing trade and economic cooperation with regional countries with New Zealand as a priority.
He highly valued the effective coordination of the two countries at multilateral organisations and forums such as the East Asia Summit (EAS), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and the United Nations.
As Vietnam and New Zealand share a lot of strategic benefits in the region, the two nations should enhance cooperation and mutual support at multilateral organisations and forums to cope with regional and global challenges, he said.
For his part, Minister McCully said during his talks with Deputy PM and FM Pham Binh Minh, the two sides agreed to boost bilateral cooperation across the fields and elevate the Vietnam-New Zealand relations to strategic partnership in two or three coming years.
He affirmed that New Zealand will support Vietnam to host the APEC Year 2017, especially the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Da Nang, as well as advocate Vietnam to become a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council for the 2020-2021 tenure and take the role of ASEAN Chair in 2020.
The Minister welcomed Vietnam to improve its investment climate to draw foreign investors, saying New Zealand wants to step up trade, economic, and investment cooperation with Vietnam given the enormous opportunities from the ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand free trade agreement.
New Zealand also focuses on collaborating with Vietnam in the fields of agriculture, education-training, security-defence, and supports the country in peacekeeping activities and bomb-and-mine clearance.
The country has been actively increasing the imports of Vietnamese fruits, including rambutans, he added.-VNA
VNA
