who accompanied by his wife Bronagh Key, and a high-level delegtion,
arrived here on Sunday, will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh today.Mr Key's visit revolves round commercial and economic ties with
India, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vishnu Prakash told
reporters while briefing them about the visit.
New Zealand, 2.5 pc of whose population consist of persons of
Indian origin, has already identified India as its key economic
partner.
There has been regular high-level exchanges between the two
countries in recent years. Dr Singh had a meeting with his New
Zealand counterpart in Hanoi this year on the sidelines of the
East Asia Summit.
The Trade and Commerce Ministers and Speaker of the country
recently visited India, while India's Commerce, and Power Ministers
went to New Zealand.
The bilateral trade has been growing steadily over the years and
the commercial and economic relations of the two countries were now
poised for further growth.
There was great potential for Indian companies in the IT sector
and already companies like the Infosys, TCS among others had their
presence in New Zealand.
There was great cooperation with the country in the field of
dairy farming, earthquake engineering, post harvest technology and
food processing.
New Zealand sees India as large market, particularly in the dairy
and agriculture sector. India is going to be a great market for milk
as birth of a large number of the children in the world was taking
place in India.
Mr Key will tomorrow call on President Pratibha Devisingh Patil
and Vice-President Hamid Ansari besides meeting Leader of the
Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and UPA Chairperson Sonia
Gandhi. He will also have meetings with External Affairs Minister S M
Krishna.
Some agreements will be signed after talks between the two Prime
Ministers.
Mr Key will also address a business lunch session organised by
the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The External Affairs Ministry said here that Mr Key's visit
will provide an opportunity for the leaders of the two countries to
exchange views and perspectives on regional, multilateral as well as
bilateral issues of mutual interest.
"The visit is expected to give a further fillip to the two way
trade which has grown from 165 million dollars in 2003-04 to 755
million dollars in 2009-10. A bilateral free trade agreement is
currently under negotiation," it said.
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