This has been PM Phuc’s first visit to New Zealand since he took office.
For the Vietnamese side, the visit aims to implement the foreign policy set by the 12th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam, to promote multilateral and diversified relations and international integration.
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Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc. Photo: VNA |
Vietnam-New Zealand two-way trade has grown positively over the last decade. It was only US$300 million in 2009, and rose to US$750 million in 2013, an annual increase of around 20 percent. Last year, it reached over US$900 million.
To date, New Zealand is the 31st largest trade partner of Vietnam and Vietnam ranks the 17th among New Zealand’s trade partners. The Southwestern Pacific island country now has 28 projects with the total registered capital of US$ 101.94 million, ranking 41st out of the 120 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnam has six joint-venture projects, focusing on processing, manufacturing, catering industry, agriculture, forestry and aquaculture, with the total investment of US$25.62 million, in New Zealand.
Notably, New Zealand is among countries which provides annually-increasing official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam, focusing on human resources development, education and training, and sustainable agriculture and rural development. Particularly, Wellington pledged to offer about US$18.6 million of ODA between July 2015 and June 2018.
In the field of defense-security, Vietnam and New Zealand signed an agreement on prevention and fight against trans-national crimes in 2010 and a memorandum of understanding on bilateral defense cooperation in 2013. The two sides also biannually host a joint working group to review their cooperation. New Zealand has provided training courses on anti-terrorism, money laundering and high-tech crimes as well as tactical emergency medical care. Furthermore, the two sides are strengthening cooperation on education. Particularly, New Zealand supports Vietnam in training English for Vietnamese personnel to be deployed to UN peacekeeping missions, and the two sides maintain regular calls to each other’s naval forces and a bilateral defense dialogue mechanism.
At present nearly 3,000 Vietnamese students are studying in New Zealand. Every year, the New Zealand Government provides scholarships to 20 officials from Vietnamese ministries and branches to attend intensive courses in the country. New Zealand also granted scholarships to Vietnamese undergraduate and post-graduate students to study at various universities and colleges in the country. Last year, New Zealand helped train English and improve competencies of Vietnamese staff who served in the 2017 APEC Economic Leaders’ Week in Da Nang.
In addition, Vietnam and New Zealand have promoted cooperation and signed agreements in fields of labor, transportation, and agriculture.
At the multilateral scale, both Vietnam and New Zealand are members of the United Nations, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM), and other regional cooperation mechanisms led by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The two sides actively maintain their close coordination and mutual support for the signing of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and strive for early signing and ratification of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP). New Zealand backed Vietnam to become a non-permanent member of UN Security Council, member of Economic and Social Council, and member of UNESCO Executive Board, and to successfully host the APEC 2017 Year.
At present, the population of the Vietnamese community in New Zealand is over 5,000 people, with a large majority living and working in Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington.
The official visit to New Zealand by PM Phuc is to re-affirm that Vietnam always attaches importance to expanding its bilateral relations with New Zealand.
The success of the visit will create a new momentum to further boost the Vietnam-New Zealand comprehensive partnership in all spheres.
Written by Editorial Board
Translated by Van Hieu