Wellington (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh suggestedVietnam and New Zealand forge their economic and trade ties in order to reachthe bilateral trade target of 1.7 billion USD in 2020 set by their seniorleaders.

The official made the proposalduring his meetings with New Zealand’s Speaker of the House of RepresentativesDavid Carter, and Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Finance Minister Bill English inWellington on December 1. 

He called on the twocountries to increase connectivity and cooperation between their businesseswhile seeking collaboration in new areas like banking, services and renewableenergy, especially wind power which is the strength of New Zealand.

Minh spoke highly ofNew Zealand’s economic achievements, which, he said, have helped New Zealandbecome one of the ten economies of the Organisation for Economic Cooperationand Development (OECD) recording the fastest and stable economic growth rate.

At the meetings, thetwo sides noted with pleasure the strong development of the Vietnam-New Zealandrelationship, especially since the two countries established a comprehensivepartnership in 2009 and issued a joint statement in March 2015, under whichthey agreed to enhance the comprehensive partnership towards a strategicpartnership.
  
The regular exchange ofhigh-ranking delegations, particularly in 2015 which marked the 40th anniversary of diplomatic ties (1975-1945), has helped intensify mutualunderstanding between Vietnam and New Zealand, they said.

Two-way trade expandedby 20 percent annually over the past five years, exceeding 800 million USD in2015, the officials stressed, commenting on the effective and pragmaticbilateral collaboration in national defence and security, agriculture, labour,culture and people-to-people exchanges.

The New Zealand sidepromised to join hands with Vietnam in speeding up the assessment of risks toVietnamese agricultural products, thus facilitating their penetration into the NewZealand market.

Talking about thelatest developments relating to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreementto which Vietnam and New Zealand are signatories, they described free trade andintegration as an irreversible trend.

The two sides pledgedto continue their coordination and mutual support at regional and internationalforums to which they are members, including the Asia-Pacific EconomicCooperation (APEC) forum.

The New Zealand sideaffirmed its backing for Vietnam as the host of the APEC Year in 2017.

David Carter saidVietnam is one of the priority partners with which New Zealand has early establishedthe comprehensive partnership.

While expressing hisdelight at the thriving legislative ties and people-to-people exchanges betweenthe two countries, the speaker said the two sides should maintain the directair route between Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City and Auckland city of New Zealandin a bid to boost trade, tourism and delegation exchanges.

For his part, BillEnglish highly valued Vietnam’s encouraging achievements in economicrestructuring and growth model reform, saying New Zealand wants to cooperatewith Vietnam in economy, finance, banking and State-owned enterpriserestructuring.

New Zealand willcontinue to support Vietnam’s development by providing official development assistance(ODA) to the country, he said.
Later the same day,Deputy PM and FM Minh visited the Vietnamese Embassy in New Zealand. -VNA