The government is to reach out to South Africans living in New Zealand to improve links between the two countries, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.
Mbeki met New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Helen Clark, who paid him a courtesy call in Pretoria ahead of the Progressive Governance Summit that both will be attending over the weekend.
Clark raised a number of issues with Mbeki in their meeting that lasted just less than an hour.
She proposed a co-production film agreement between the two countries to develop the film industries in both.
”It helps with film project development, finance across boundaries and takes advantage of film makers’ skills and infrastructure in both countries,” Clark said.
”I agreed immediately; we are trying very hard to develop our film industry but clearly we are way behind New Zealand in this regard, so this is a matter we would act upon,” Mbeki added.
Clark offered that South Africa could get involved with New Zealand’s working holiday scheme.
”We’ve got 40 000 places in our working holiday scheme for young people of other countries to come work and live in our country on a receptacle basis,” Clark said.
Mbeki said the two leaders also focused on South Africans living in New Zealand to see how their skills could be used to improve the relationship between the two countries.
He said there are almost 45 000 South Africans living permanently in New Zealand who are well placed to advance their former country’s interests.
”These are very capable and very skilled people and we would see how we they could be used to further strengthen our bilateral relations,” Mbeki said.
The two discussed the fisheries agreement that is being finalised, and briefly touched on South Africa’s role in peacekeeping on the African continent.
Clark was also scheduled to meet Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and Minister of Foreign Affairs Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma later on Friday. — Sapa