New Zealand PM to hold talks with Manmohan Singh today

New Delhi: New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, 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 consists of persons ofIndian origin, has already identified India as its key economic partner.There have 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 andfood processing. New Zealand sees India as large market, particularly in the dairyand 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 755million dollars in 2009-10. A bilateral free trade agreement is currently under negotiation,” it said.