Czech Republic Official State Visit

Your Excellencies, President Klaus and Madame Klausova

Distinguished Guests

Ladies and Gentlemen

Kia ora tatou - greetings to you all.

We are delighted to be here in this beautiful and historic capital city in the heart of Europe.

Peter and I have been touched by the warmth of your welcome, both earlier today during the official ceremony and tonight at this dinner.

My visit to the Czech Republic is intended to underscore the importance we attach to building our partnership with you.

We share with you a commitment to democratic values, to global peace and security, the advancement of human rights and to economic prosperity.

New Zealanders have the highest admiration for the stoicism and determination in which Czech citizens have faced the challenges of the last 100 years. I pay tribute to the important contribution you personally have made as leader of your country. 

Through the Prague Spring, the Czech people demonstrated to the world their resistance to injustice.  The majority of Czech migrants to New Zealand in recent years followed the suppression of this movement. They embodied the spirit of the Czech people. 

The fall of the Berlin Wall, the Velvet Revolution, and this year's European enlargement, are truly historic and remarkable achievements. 

New Zealanders and Czechs share much in common. We should not let the distance that separates us geographically hinder our joint efforts to develop an even closer partnership.

I am delighted that our Honorary Consul in the Czech Republic, Vera Egermayer, is here with us tonight. Vera knows both New Zealand and the Czech Republic very well, and I should like to pay tribute to the excellent work she does on New Zealand's behalf in the Czech Republic and in promoting closer Czech-NZ relations. 

There is much that we are already doing together. People to people contacts underlie a successful bilateral relationship.  Some 3,500 Czechs visited New Zealand last year.  The represented the largest growth in tourism to New Zealand from any country, admittedly from a small base. Prague and the Czech Republic are growing in popularity among New Zealanders visiting Europe.

225 Czechs studied English in New Zealand last year.  This is the largest number from any Central European country. Like many Europeans, young Czechs students increasingly view New Zealand as a desirable and cost effective study destination. We would like to see further two-way exchanges of students, who are the leaders of the future for both our countries. The New Zealand Minister of Education visited the Czech Republic last September to encourage such co-operation, including university partnerships.

To further increase our people to people contacts, I am delighted that we have today signed a bilateral Working Holiday Agreement.  The Agreement will allow young people, between the ages of 18 and 30, to spend up to a year on holiday in each other's country, but permits them to study or to work to support themselves while there.  It will overcome the normal difficulties associated with obtaining work permits while on holiday in a country. 

As an indication of the importance we attach to this Agreement I am very pleased to be able to announce that New Zealand has already decided to implement it with effect from March 2005. 

Your membership of the EU has added another important dimension to our bilateral relationship. We value your perspectives on important EU issues such as reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and on other key regional and international issues. It is important to your friends in the South Pacific including New Zealand, that the EU maintain an open, liberal and transparent trading regime. It is vital to us too that the current round of WTO multilateral trade negotiations, the Doha Round, is completed successfully.

We believe your membership of the EU will lead to increased trade between our two countries. The EU, as a whole, is our second largest trading partner and a particularly important market for our high quality agricultural products such as butter, lamb, venison, apples, kiwifruit, fish and wool.  But current levels underrate the potential that exists to increase trade between our two countries.

New Zealand, through its geographic location, is also well situated to develop trade and economic partnerships with its neighbours in the Asian region. I believe there is scope for Czech and New Zealand entrepreneurs to work together to share their expertise and form strategic partnerships focusing on this dynamic growth region.

Our successes in the film industry, such as Lord of the Rings, have sparked interest in New Zealand as a tourist destination, but it has also given rise to new domestic industries such as special effects. Increasingly, we in New Zealand are developing new, high-tech, globally competitive, industries which offer scope for cooperation between us,

In conclusion, Mr President, my hope is that our two countries will continue to forge an even closer relationship based on the many areas of shared interest I have mentioned tonight, both to advance our bilateral partnership but also to enable us, together, to promote the universal values and beliefs we both hold dear and on which are two modern democracies are based.

On a personal note, I should like to extend to you, and Mrs Klausova, our very best wishes for the future and to thank you again for receiving us so graciously in this marvellous setting.  I hope you may have an opportunity, despite your very busy schedule to accept my invitation to visit New Zealand.  I can assure you of the warmest of welcomes.

Thank you.