VietNamNet Bridge - New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam, Haike Manning, has announced that the two countries are establishing a direct air route, which is expected to open in 2017.

New Zealand Ambassador to Vietnam, Haike Manning.

In a recent press conference in Hanoi, Ambassador Manning emphasized that this is a result of the official visit to New Zealand of Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung.

Air New Zealand was promoting to establish a direct route between the two countries.

Air New Zealand has also signed a cooperation agreement with Singapore Airlines to open direct flights to Singapore.

At least 33,000 New Zealand tourists visited Vietnam and 3,000 Vietnamese travelled to New Zealand in 2014. Vietnam has 2,000 students in New Zealand, two-way trade exceeded $1 billion in early 2015 and bilateral economic, trade, investment, education and tourism cooperation are the foundation for the early establishment of this route.

New Zealand's objective is to promote tourism with Vietnam. It also aims to bring trade turnover to $1.7 billion by 2020.

M. Thu