PM Dung begins New Zealand visit

The delegation was welcomed by New Zealand Government representatives, Auckland Mayor Len Brown, Vietnam Ambassador to New Zealand Nguyen Viet Dung and others.

Talks were held between PM Dung and his counterpart John Key after the official welcome ceremony in Auckland.

The visit aims to consolidate and deepen comprehensive partnership between the two countries.

The two nations maintain high-level visit exchange, while effectively operating mechanisms such as the Deputy Foreign Minister-level political consultation, the Joint Trade and Economic Commission (JTEC), the defence consultation and the annual consultation on Vietnam-New Zealand development cooperation.

Both Vietnam and New Zealand are members of major regional and global forums and organizations such as the United Nations, the World Trade Organisation, the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) and bodies within ASEAN. Both are working for an early conclusion of negotiations on the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) agreement in the near future.

Two-way trade saw an annual 20% growth, hitting US$750 million in 2013 from only US$300 million in 2009. This figure during the first nine months of last year was US$590 million, up 14% against the same period of 2013.

New Zealand is currently running 25 investment projects in Vietnam, with a combined capital of nearly US$82 million. It ranks 42nd amongst the 101 countries and territories investing in Vietnam. Meanwhile, Vietnam is operating two joint venture projects in New Zealand.

New Zealand’s official development assistance (ODA) provision for Vietnam surged to 10.5 million NZ dollars (over US$7.7 million) in 2012-2013 from only 3.2 million NZ dollar in 2003-2004, with a focus on human resources development, education-training, agricultural and rural development and sustainable development.

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

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