Speaker of New Zealand’s Parliament Lockwood Smith and his wife arrived in Hanoi on April 15 for an official visit to Vietnam at the invitation of the host Nguyen Phu Trong, the communist party said on its website.
The trip will be made in the context of the fine development in bilateral relations between the two nations, particularly in fields of education and training, tourism, trade and investment.
The signing of significant cooperative agreements on economy, trade, investment encouragement and protection, aviation has allegedly contributed to bring the two-way trade between Vietnam and New Zealand from US$187 million in 2001 to US$313 million last year.
The Pacific Ocean-based island nation mainly exports agricultural products like dairy butter, leather, feather, pulp, chemicals and animal feeds to Vietnam and imports footwear, furniture, pottery, apparel and cashew nuts from the Southeast Asian nation.
Currently, New Zealand is investing 14 projects valued at over US$50 million in Vietnam, focusing on sectors of wood processing, mining, soft drinks, dairy processing, concrete production, construction, hotel business.
New Zealand is also among ODA big providers of Vietnam, with over US$7.4 million in the fiscal year of 2008-2009.
There are about 1,500 Vietnamese students studying in the foreign nation.
Recently, New Zealand has officially recognized Vietnam’s full-market economy status.
Amid the globally worsening unemployment crisis, New Zealand has signed a deal to receive 300 more Vietnamese laborers. (CPV)
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