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![Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with visiting New Zealand's Prime Minister John Key in Beijing on March 19, 2014 [Xinhua]](http://thebricspost.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/xi-kiwi.jpg)
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R) meets with visiting New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key in Beijing on March 19, 2014 [Xinhua]
Xi met visiting Prime Minister John Key in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Wednesday.
“The Chinese side stands ready to make joint efforts with New Zealand to lead the bilateral comprehensive partnership to a new high on the basis of mutual respect and win-win reciprocity,” Xi said.
The two sides have set a trade target of 30 billion NZ dollars (around $26 billion) annually by 2020.
After the signing of the currency accord, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said direct trading would help China and New Zealand to reduce costs for currency exchange and facilitate bilateral trade.
“Just as the free trade agreement between New Zealand and China has supported a significant increase in two-way trade between our countries, I expect this currency agreement to further deepen our economic relationship,” said New Zealand’s Finance Minister Bill English.
Beijing is aggressively promoting the usage of its currency in global trade and finance and is gaining widespread acceptability with the yuan now becoming the second most traded currency in the world. The US dollar, the Japanese yen, the Australian dollar, the Russian rouble and the Malaysian ringgit are the other currencies that trade directly with China’s renminbi.
Chinese-Kiwi trade rose to $18.2 billion in 2013.
Source: Agencies
