India most preferred trading nation's status: NZ

Mumbai, Sep 26: New Zealand will soon accord India the status of the most preferred nation to trade with.

This statement was made by New Zealand's Member of Parliament and Shadow Minister of Justice Dr Richard Worth while addressing a meeting ''India-New Zealand Business Potential'', which was held by All India Association of Industries (AIAI) here today.

He said after New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark's visit to India in 2004, there has been a significant progress in strengthening of the bilateral trade ties between the two countries.

Still, there was lot to be done in this direction, he added.

The export-import figure between the two countries altogether crossed the mark of NZ dollars 40 billion last year, he said.

The figure was quite less when compared to Australia's trade with India which was Australian dollars 65.4 billion during the same year.

Lauding the efforts made by India in various trade sectors, Mr Worth said she has already made a headway in diverse fields like information technology, medical sciences and architecture.

The Indians have been migrating in large numbers to New Zealand since then. There is full scope for more migration from India as his country has decided to increase the intake of new migrants during the current financial year, he said.

Commenting on the air services licence, he said it needs to be given more tooth.

He said the second area of concern was tourism. About 17,000 Indian tourists have visited New Zealand so far this year, while 12,000 tourists from New Zealand visited India during the same period.

Mr Worth, who has already served as the deputy chairman of the Indian Parliamentarian in his country, said last year, a hundred Bollywood films were shot in New Zealand.

He hoped that more Indian film crew can think of visiting his country for the shooting of their future ventures, as the country has vast potential for the same there.

Dr Worth told UNI that another important area of interest New Zealand was looking at India was milk production.

Today, an Indian cow produces 1,014 kg milk per year, which was quite less as compared to the world average of 2,071 kg, he said.

In this, his country could help India emerge as a hub of milk production, he added.

UNI