China and New Zealand to scale new heights in cooperation: premier

Visiting Chinese Premier Li Keqiang attends a welcoming luncheon in Auckland held by representatives from all walks of life in New Zealand on March 28, 2017. [Photo: gov.cn]

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said Beijing is willing to work with New Zealand to take bilateral cooperation to new heights.

He made the remarks while attending a welcoming luncheon in Auckland held by representatives from all walks of life in New Zealand.

Premier Li stressed that there's no limit to the cooperation between China and New Zealand, noting that there have been many achievements already.

"Famous New Zealand mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary once said, 'It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.' As such, the China-New Zealand ties require our joint efforts to create more 'firsts' in bilateral cooperation," said Li.

New Zealand has enjoyed a series of 'firsts' in terms of China's relations with Western developed countries.

It was the first such nation to sign a free trade agreement (FTA) with China, to sign a cooperation agreement on the Belt and Road Initiative, to recognize China's full market economy status, and to join the China-initiated Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) as a founding member.

Talks on upgrading the bilateral FTA between the two countries are set to take place in late April, which could provide more opportunities for trade and investment between both sides.

Li Keqiang said the two countries could deepen cooperation in a variety of areas apart from agriculture and dairy products.

"This morning, Prime Minister Bill English and I took a look at some home appliance products with world leading quality jointly produced by Chinese household appliance giant Haier and New Zealand enterprises. The products are booming not only in New Zealand, but also in Australia and even in global markets. This shows that China and New Zealand could open up cooperation in third-party markets. Such cooperation will not harm but benefit the third-party markets," said Li.

New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English said his country owes a lot to the success of the Chinese economy.

"There are jobs, opportunities, households with a future here, to some extent because of the success of the Chinese economy. And we particularly appreciated it, back in 2009, when in the fight of the global financial crisis, New Zealand was in a depression, but because the engine room of the Chinese economy has affected on Australia and on us, we were able to pull through that difficult period, and now we have built on that resilience, the confidence of one of the fastest growing developing economies," said English.

During Premier Li's visit to New Zealand, both countries vowed to strengthen cooperation in such fields as joint research, information sharing, new types of businesses, and cross-border e-commerce.

The two countries will also expand cooperation in education and tourism, and facilitate people-to-people exchanges.