China and New Zealand
Economic Relationship

Since the establishment of the diplomatic ties between the People's Republic
of China and New Zealand in 1972, the trade and economic relations between our
two countries have developed in a very steady and smooth way. With the frequent
contacts and exchanges of visits by the high-ranking officials of both
Governments, the recent years have witnessed a new momentum of development in
the trade and economic cooperation between China and New Zealand.

According to the statistics of China's Customs, the trade volume between our
two countries in 2002 reached $US 1.4 billion, which indicated an increase of
19.4% over the previous year. In the field of bilateral investment, New Zealand,
as a traditional capital-inflow country, has in the recent years invested
actively in China. We appreciate the trend of this development. Meanwhile the
investment from China into New Zealand has reached US$ 0.1billion by the end of
2002 and at the present New Zealand has become one of China's important overseas
investment destinations.

China and New Zealand are friendly countries in the Asia-Pacific region. We
appreciate the Government of New Zealand attaching great importance to the Asia
and Pacific countries. We welcome our New Zealand friends in the industry and
business circle to concentrate more attention to China. At the same time, the
Chinese Government has regarded the South-Pacific region including New Zealand
as one of the priority regions for the implementation of its strategy on market
diversification. All these facts have clearly shown that there is a sound
foundation and great prospect for further economic and trade cooperation between
China and New Zealand. We are fully confident that with the joint efforts by our
two governments and people in the economic, trade and business circles in both
countries, the bilateral cooperation in these fields will be further developed
in the future.