SHANGHAI — New Zealand (NZ) is taking further steps to strengthen its bilateral trading relationship with China and is expecting to increase exports to China by at least 25 percent from 2011.

Benefiting from the New Zealand-China Free Trade Agreement, which has been in force from Oct 2008, NZ's exports to China have grown significantly in the past 3 years. In the year to Oct 2011, they reached $4.6 billion, a 34 percent increase from 2010. NZ is expecting to expand bilateral trade between China to $16 billion by 2015.

"New Zealand's export trade with China over the past two years has grown faster than with any other major nations in New Zealand's trading history," said Mike Arand, Trade Commissioner of New Zealand's Trade & Enterprise Board.

To better strengthen the relationship between the two countries in the Year of the Dragon, Prime Minister John Key launched the latest NZ Inc China Strategy on Feb 3, a vision he said would help to better develop the country's engagement with China.

Arand said the China Strategy has been under preparation for the past few years and aims at pulling different government agencies to work together to focus on one strategy so as to assist businesses seeking opportunities in China.

He said the strategy is to identify key sectors or industries in NZ and to support key industries such as the tourism, food and beverage sectors to be successful.