Minister Truong Quang Nghia recieved Mr. Haike Manning, Ambassador of New Zealand in Vietnam
Ambassador Haike Manning thanked Minister Truong Quang Nghia for spending time for the meeting and congratulated H.E Nghia on his appointment as Minister of Transport. The Ambassador said that transport was a very important sector due to the demand for infrastructure development of Viet Nam. He added that he had been working in Viet Nam for 4 years and witnessed that significant changes had been made to the infrastructure system.
The Ambassador expressed delight at cooperative achievement after 40 years since the establishment of Viet Nam – New Zealand diplomatic relationship in 1975.The cooperation between the two countries had been continuously developing in various aspects such as education, agriculture, natural disaster warning, etc. Especially, with the Viet Nam – New Zealand arrangement on aviation cooperation signed in 2015, the two sides had been deepening the closed cooperation in human resource development in aviation sector.
H.E Haike Manning recalled that in 2013, the two PMs had agreed to set objective of opening direct flight between the two countries by 2018. Since November 2015, Air New Zealand had decided to open direct flight between Viet Nam and New Zealand in June 2016 and this would facilitate travelling of the two countries’ people. Taking this opportunity, Ambassador Haike requested the honor of Minister Nghia at the inauguration ceremony of the direct flight between Auckland and Ho Chi Minh City to be held on 4th June 2016 in Ho Chi Minh City.
In his remarks, Minister Truong Quang Nghia thanked New Zealand sides for supporting Viet Nam in fields, especially in civil aviation sector. He added that the direct flight between the two countries would be an important milestone opening a new development stage in the two countries relationship.
Minister expressed high appreciation to Ambassador Haike Manning for his contribution to improving diplomatic relationship between the two countries during his 4 years in Viet Nam and hoped that the Ambassador would further support the cooperation in transport sector between the two sides. He informed that the Government and MOT welcome foreign investors to participate in the transport infrastructure projects in Viet Nam and hoped that Viet Nam and New Zealand would have agreements on this issue in the coming time. Besides, according to the Minister, maritime, railway and road would be sectors to be cooperated between the two sides in the future.
The Ambassador affirmed to further tie up the aviation cooperation between Viet Nam and New Zealand. For other sectors, the New Zealand sides would study and wished to receive detailed information from related agencies under MOT.