Vietnam’s lawmaking National Assembly (NA) Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue arrived in Auckland City, New Zealand on Wednesday, commencing his five-day official visit to the country.

Welcoming the Vietnamese NA leader at Auckland International Airport were Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Nguyen Van Trung as well as representatives of the New Zealand government and the Auckland administration, the Vietnam News Agency reported.

The visit will last until Wednesday at the invitation of Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives Adrian Rurawhe, marking the first official visit by Hue to New Zealand as Vietnam’s top legislator.

This is also the first visit of a senior Vietnamese leader to New Zealand since the two countries fully reopened after putting COVID-19 under control.

During his stay in New Zealand, Chairman Hue will hold talks with New Zealand Parliament Speaker Adrian Rurawhe and meet with other senior leaders of the host country.

He will have meetings with a number of representatives of New Zealand enterprises in Auckland on Sunday morning.

As part of his trip, the Vietnamese legislator will visit the Vietnamese Embassy in Wellington, attend educational and economic cooperation forums, and meet with representatives of the Vietnamese community, among other activities.

Talking to the press ahead of the visit, New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam Tredene Dobson said New Zealand was looking forward to Hue’s visit, which would open up opportunities for further promotion of cooperation between the two legislative bodies, as well as the two countries in general, especially in sustainable economic development.

Chairman Hue’s visit follows a four-day visit to Vietnam by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, starting on November 14, during which Ardern and many Vietnamese leaders, including the NA chairman, discussed steps to promote the bilateral strategic partnership that was established in July 2020.

Currently, New Zealand is a strategic partner of Vietnam in the South Pacific region, with cooperation between the two countries having developed vigorously and effectively in all fields.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the exchange of delegations between the two legislatures was interrupted in the 2021-22 period, but high-level contacts were maintained and bilateral cooperation mechanisms were conducted both online and in person.

The 15th Vietnamese NA has established the 10-member Vietnam - New Zealand Friendship Parliamentarians’ Group and continued maintaining information exchange with the New Zealand Embassy in Hanoi.

Both countries are members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Regional Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP).

New Zealand is now the 36th-largest trading partner of Vietnam, with two-way trade continuing to grow despite the impacts of the pandemic.  

Last year, bilateral trade reached US$1.3 billion, up 26.7 percent from 2020, and the figure for the first nine months of this year amounted to $1.1 billion, up 13.6 percent year on year.

As one of the countries providing stable ODA sources to Vietnam, New Zealand has approved an ODA fund worth NZD26.7 million ($17.1) for the Southeast Asian country in 2021-24, equivalent to the amount in the 2018-21 period.

New Zealand has also supplied 30,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses and NZD2 million ($1.28 million) in post-pandemic relief aid to Vietnam.

Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!