- Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern met Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh of Viet Nam for a Prime Ministers' Summit today in Ha Noi, Viet Nam.
The Prime Ministers reaffirmed New Zealand and Viet Nam's commitment to working together as strategic partners.
"Viet Nam is an important partner for New Zealand, and their emerging, dynamic market presents many of our businesses with new market opportunities for export growth, which will also provide greater economic security to all New Zealanders," Jacinda Ardern said.
"Our priority is to continue supporting businesses, both on this trade mission and back home, to grow further into the Viet Nam market, building on our significant two-way trade relationship already worth over $2.3 billion (NZD) in the year ending June 2022.
"Over the past five years alone, our exports have increased 43 per cent and two-way trade has increased by 59 percent.
"Prime Minister Chinh and I reaffirmed our commitment to working together as strategic partners and discussed the global inflationary environment that's driving cost of living pressures on families in the region, as well as agriculture, education and further ways to strengthen our trade and economic relationship.
"It is also our priority to ensure New Zealand business have access to the workers they need amid a global worker shortage. New Zealand has agreed to permanently double our working holiday scheme cap to 200 places and looks forward to welcoming those additional working holiday makers to New Zealand," Jacinda Ardern said.
Following the conclusion of the Prime Ministers' Summit, they witnessed the signing of Civil Aviation and Education cooperation arrangements between New Zealand and Viet Nam.
"Viet Nam is already our fourth largest international education market, and this renewed Education Cooperation Arrangement will see us cooperate even closer in priority areas like early childhood education, primary and secondary education, higher education, national qualifications frameworks and systems, and English language training," Jacinda Ardern said.
"The Civil Aviation Cooperation Arrangement will lift the profile of our pilot training programmes and covers information sharing in areas like civil aviation policy, flight training, air navigation and environmental and sustainable aviation.
"Our countries also share a long history of cooperating through our International Development Cooperation aid programme, particularly in the area of climate smart agriculture.
"The third phase of our longstanding cooperation on dam safety has also begun. The new phase of the dam safety project, worth $7.5 million (NZD) over five years, will continue our work to improve disaster resilience in a further five provinces in Viet Nam.
"We are also working through the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases to support more productive, low-emission food systems. We will be working with Viet Nam to establish a regional measurement hub in Viet Nam to provide infrastructure and training for neighbouring countries on improving emissions measurement in the agriculture sector," Jacinda Ardern said.
The Prime Ministers also discussed the importance of advancing their respective ambitious climate change targets, regional and global issues including the outcomes of the East Asia Summit and their priorities for the upcoming APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting.
"I look forward to the rest of our time in Viet Nam as an opportunity to reconnect New Zealand business and learn more about the opportunities in this rapidly growing and dynamic market," Jacinda Ardern said.
Prime Minister Ardern will be in Viet Nam until 17 November.
