(VNF) - Ms Jo Goodhew, New Zealand Minister for Food Safety and associate Minister for Primary Industries, is paying a working visit to Vietnam from July 27th - 30th.

The visit aims to review existing cooperation between the two nations in the critical area of food safety and discuss opportunities to expand this in future. It is also an opportunity to celebrate bilateral ties during the 40th anniversary of friendship and diplomatic bilateral relationship.

Minister Goodhew’s working visit follows the official visit to New Zealand by Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung in March 2015, during which a food safety cooperation arrangement was signed by Minister Goodhew and Vietnam’s Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Cao Duc Phat. This arrangement lays the platform for closer Vietnam-New Zealand cooperation in the food safety area and in respect of trade in food products.

“New Zealand and Vietnam have been cooperating in the agriculture and food safety space for many years, across a wide-variety of activities. These have taken place in the development assistance area, in regional forums and in the trade area. This food safety cooperation arrangement I recently signed with Minister Cao Duc Phat is an excellent opportunity to take this cooperation to the next level. As two agricultural economies, in which food safety is extremely important, I see this as a very meaningful and mutually beneficial area in which to grow our partnership,” said Minister Goodhew.

During the visit, Minister Goodhew will meet with Minister Cao Duc Phat to discuss implementation of the recently concluded food safety cooperation arrangement. She has planed to meet with Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam to discuss Vietnam’s multi-agency approach to food safety and the possible application of new models of cooperation on food safety. Besides, Minister Goodhew will also pay a courtesy call on Minister of Health Nguyen Thi Kim Tien.

Then, she will travel to southern province of Binh Dinh to work with local authorities, experts and farmers to assess the outcomes of New Zealand’s existing development projects in the location, as well as review the design of new food safety-related development assistance projects being planned.

“Binh Dinh and New Zealand have a special relationship going back over 50 years, back to when New Zealand’s volunteer medics served there in the 1960s. We’re now looking at new and innovative projects in Binh Dinh in the food safety area, building on our sustainable rural livelihoods project, which we hope will form the basis for implementation right across Vietnam,” shared Minister Goodhew.

Started in 2009, so far, over USD3 million has been spent for the “Binh Dinh sustainable rural livelihoods-linking poor farmers to market” project, aiming to improve food safety standards, increasing the quantity and quality of the safe agricultural products including safe vegetables, coconut and livestock. The ultimate goal is increased and sustainable farmer income.

In Ho Chi Minh city, Minister Goodhew will meet business contacts from the agriculture and forestry/timber sectors. As Associate Minister for Primary Industries, Minister Goodhew is responsible for forestry, so this will be an opportunity to discuss opportunities for expanding trade in forestry products between New Zealand and Vietnam and overcoming some of the challenges currently faced by importers in this area.

According to her, Vietnam has been our fastest growing market in ASEAN over the past five years, and is becoming an increasingly important partner of New Zealand’s.

Last year, New Zealand primary products exported to Vietnam reached around USD430 million.

The Vietnam-New Zealand relationship has grown significantly in the last 10 years, especially in the fields of agriculture, education, development assistance and defence.

Following a comprehensive partnership agreement signed in 2009, during Prime Minister Dung’s visit to New Zealand this March, the two sides agreed to further deepen and intensify the existing comprehensive partnership toward the establishment of a strategic partnership in the coming time./.

( VNF )