New Zealand PM John Key Moots Stronger Ties With ASEAN Countries

New Zealand Prime Minister John Key has hailed his country’s four decade long relations with the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations, which are powered by fast-growing economies. The PM said in a message that the relations with ASEAN, which started 40 years ago, have opened up a major market for high-quality food, tourism and education in the region.

As a milestone to mark the 40th anniversary of New Zealand's relationship with the ASEAN community, the government and its private sector are looking at ways to deepen the engagement with partners in the region. Mr Key said tourism and knowledge transfer are two vital sectors both can join hands.

Boost For Tourism

New Zealand is keen on growth of tourism, particularly after Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand entered into an alliance in January 2015 and improved the connectivity between ASEAN countries and New Zealand. The partnership bolstered the prospects of making Singapore the aviation hub for Southeast Asian travellers for reaching New Zealand. The alliance has helped the carriers to increase their capacity in the New Zealand- Singapore sector by 30 percent, according to Singapore Airlines.

Mr. Key said New Zealand government is seeing tremendous potential in extending its know-how to Southeast Asia countries. One reason is that manufacturers in the ASEAN region pay a lot of emphasis on research and development. That way, knowledge transfer can become a key to produce high-value products. New Zealand’s exports to ASEAN now account for more than 10 percent of its total trade. In 2014, two-way trade was NZD12.8 billion. In that, Thailand is at number 3 after Malaysia and Singapore.

Migrant Crisis

Meanwhile, New Zealand offered to take a few the Rohingya Muslims. The gesture to share the ASEAN migrant problem is part of its commitment to the UNHCR program, whereby New Zealand takes 750 refugees each year. However, the PM said New Zealand is not looking to increase the number of intake immediately.

The emergency international summit held in Bangkok on Friday also tried to address the fall out of the migrant boat crisis from the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea with its root in Myanmar and Bangladesh, reports The Guardian.

The Thai hosts had invited 17 countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, other ASEAN members and Australia for charting out collective steps to deal with the surge in Rohingya Muslim refugee inglux from Myanmar. "It is an urgent call for the region to comprehensively work together to address the unprecedented increase of irregular migration across the Bay of Bengal in recent years,” said Panote Preechyanud, spokesman of the Thai foreign ministry.

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