Deputy Prime Minister Pham Binh Minh pays official visit to New Zealand

Both sides were pleased to note the strong developments in Vietnam - New Zealand relations.

At the invitation of New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh paid an official visit to New Zealand from December 1-3, 2016. During the visit, on the afternoon of February 1, 2016, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Pham Binh Minh had meetings with Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives David Carter and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of New Zealand Bill English.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Pham Binh Minh and Speaker of the New Zealand Parliament David Carter.

At the meetings, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Pham Binh Minh sent the condolences of the Vietnamese leaders and people to the Government, Parliament and people of New Zealand on the strong earthquake on November 14 in Christchurch City; expressed his belief that people in the affected areas will soon overcome the consequences, overcome difficulties and stabilize their lives. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Pham Binh Minh highly appreciated New Zealand's economic development achievements, making New Zealand one of the 10 OECD economies with the fastest and most stable economic growth.

The two sides were pleased to note the strong developments in the Vietnam-New Zealand relationship, especially since the two countries established a Comprehensive Partnership in 2009 and issued a Joint Statement in March 2015, in which they agreed to strengthen the comprehensive partnership towards establishing a strategic partnership. Regular exchanges of high-level delegations between the two countries' leaders, especially in 2015, which marked the 40th anniversary of diplomatic relations (1975-2015), have strengthened the connection and mutual understanding. Two-way trade has grown rapidly, with an average increase of 20% per year over the past 5 years, reaching more than 800 million USD in 2015. Other areas of cooperation such as defense-security, agriculture, labor, culture and people-to-people exchange have become increasingly in-depth, effective and substantive.

Speaker of the House of Representatives David Carter highly appreciated the good Comprehensive Partnership between Vietnam and New Zealand; said that Vietnam is one of the priority partners for which New Zealand established a Comprehensive Partnership framework very early; expressed satisfaction with the increasingly enhanced cooperation between parliaments and people-to-people exchanges between the two countries; hoped that the two sides would cooperate to effectively maintain the direct flight route between Auckland and Ho Chi Minh City to contribute to connecting and further promoting trade, tourism and delegation exchanges between Vietnam and New Zealand.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Bill English highly appreciated Vietnam's encouraging achievements in the process of economic restructuring and growth model transformation; affirmed that New Zealand is interested in cooperating with Vietnam in the fields of economics, finance, banking, and restructuring of state-owned enterprises; hoped that the two sides would promote and seek cooperation opportunities in the coming time. New Zealand will continue to support Vietnam in the development process, including providing official development assistance (ODA) to Vietnam.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Pham Binh Minh suggested that both sides further promote economic and trade cooperation, striving to bring the two-way trade turnover to the target of 1.7 billion USD by 2020 as set by the two countries' senior leaders; New Zealand acknowledged and affirmed that it will cooperate to accelerate the risk assessment process for Vietnamese agricultural products, creating conditions for these products to be imported into the New Zealand market. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Pham Binh Minh also suggested that both sides strengthen connectivity and investment cooperation between businesses of the two countries, and seek cooperation opportunities in new areas such as banking, services, renewable energy, especially wind power, an area in which New Zealand has strengths.

The two sides also reviewed the latest developments related to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) Agreement and agreed that free trade and integration are irreversible trends. The two sides also affirmed to continue to cooperate and support each other at regional and international forums of which both sides are members, including the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). New Zealand is interested in and supports Vietnam as the host country of APEC in 2017.

According to VOV