Politics

Prime Minister begins official visit to New Zealand

Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived in Auckland city of New Zealand on March 19, beginning his two-day official visit to the country at the invitation of New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung arrived in Auckland city of New Zealandon March 19, beginning his two-day official visit to the country at theinvitation of New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key.

The two PMs held talks immediately after the welcome ceremony for the Vietnamese government head.

Prime Minister Dung’s visit aims to consolidate and further deepen thebilateral Comprehensive Partnership, thus expanding all-aroundcooperation.

Vietnam and New Zealand established diplomaticrelations in June 1975 and upgraded their relations to theComprehensive Partnership level in September 2009.

The two nations maintain high-level visit exchange, while effectivelyoperating mechanisms such as the Deputy Foreign Minister-level politicalconsultation, the Joint Trade and Economic Commission (JTEC), thedefence consultation and the annual consultation on Vietnam-New Zealanddevelopment cooperation.

Two-way trade saw anannual 20-percent growth, hitting 750 million USD in 2013 from only 300million USD in 2009. This figure during the first nine months of lastyear was 590 million USD, up 14 percent against the same period of 2013.

New Zealand ranks 42nd amongst the 101 countriesand territories investing in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnam is the 20thlargest trade partner of New Zealand.

New Zealand’s official development assistance (ODA) provision forVietnam surged to over 7.7 million USD in 2012-2013 from only 2.4million USD in 2003-2004.

At present, around 2,000Vietnamese students are studying in New Zealand. The two governmentsinked a cooperation agreement on education and training in the 2012-2015period during Deputy Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc’s visit to NewZealand in 2012. The New Zealand side continues to run scholarshipprogrammes for Vietnamese students to study in its universities.

The number of overseas Vietnamese living in New Zealand is about 5,000.-VNA
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