Wellington (VNA) – Vietnam and New Zealand on July27 affirmed their determination to raise two-way trade to 1.7 billion USD by2020 during Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue’s working visit to NewZealand.

While in Wellington, Hue paid a courtesy visit to Speaker ofthe House of Representatives David Carter, held talks with Deputy PrimeMinister Paula Bennett, and worked with Minister of Foreign Affairs GerryBrownlee and Minister Trade Todd McClay.

The officials agreed to intensify investment in the fieldsVietnam has demand and New Zealand has strength such as agriculture, renewableenergy and infrastructure.

Paula Bennett and Todd McClay confirmed to create favourableconditions for Vietnamese agricultural products to enter New Zealand, andcontinue supporting the country in improving production, processing and preservationof farm produce to meet foreign markets’ high standards.

The two sides reached a consensus on the early signing ofthe 2017-2020 Vietnam-New Zealand Action Programme in 2017 in order to boostcooperation in the priority fields of politics, economy-trade, agriculture,education-training, science, and tourism.

They also pledged to soon organise the sixth meeting of thetwo countries’ Joint Committee on Economic and Trade Cooperation.

The New Zealand leaders asserted to maintain the provisionof official development assistance (ODA) for Vietnam with the focus on socialwelfare, agriculture and rural development, human resources improvement, andclimate change adaptation.

Deputy PM Hue thanked New Zealand for supporting Vietnam inprojects related to dyke safety, clean vegetables, and hi-tech agriculture,while suggesting the two sides build a regular bilateral dialogue mechanism ondevelopment cooperation in order to carry out measures to use New Zealand’s ODAeffectively.

Both sides discussed regional and international issues,agreeing to continue close coordination at multilateral forums, especially ASEAN.

They emphasised the importance of maintaining peace,stability, security, maritime and aviation safety and freedom in the region,settling disputes peacefully on the basis of international law, including theUnited Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, strictly following theDeclaration on the Conduct of Parties in the East Sea, and working towards theforming of a Code of Conduct in the East Sea.

Hue and the New Zealand leaders also reaffirmed support forthe intensification of economic cooperation and trade liberalisation in theregion, and agreed to tighten cooperation to seek a proper path for theTrans-Pacific Partnership.

The hosts spoke highly of Vietnam’s successful organisationof meetings within the framework of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation(APEC) Year 2017, hoping that the two countries will share experience when NewZealand is the host of the APEC Year 2021.-VNA