KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 16 — There are many areas where New Zealand and Malaysia can work together, and especially in the field of public services delivery through the use of advanced information communication technology (ICT), said New Zealand Finance Minister, Grant Robertson.

With both the new governments keen on good governance and transparency, it would be apt for Wellington and Putrajaya to work together towards improving the delivery of public services to the people, he said.

The minister who had earlier visited Datacom, a New Zealand ICT company which has been in Malaysia for some 20 years, said his country was keen on ensuring that the government services were working for their people and had been working on developing its ICT based citizen-centric services.

"As we move towards new technology and how they are being used by businesses, there are really a lot of areas (which New Zealand and Malaysia can work together on) as we are quite complementary with each other,” Robertson told Bernama, after a briefing on New Zealand’s economic outlook at the New Zealand Official Residence, here yesterday.

He said both the countries could also cooperate in the areas of green technology and climate change, which are particularly important for a small country like New Zealand which has a population of only 4.8 million.

Robertson noted the New Zealand government also welcomed any foreign direct investments (FDI) from Malaysia into its agriculture and services sector with the view of increasing its productivity, which ranked low among the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries.

On his meeting with his Malaysian counterpart, Lim Guan Eng, on Sunday, he said both of them discussed strengthening ties between the two countries. New Zealand and Malaysia established diplomatic relations more than 60 years ago on Sept 25, 1957.

He said both of them talked about improving bilateral trade which currently stands at NZ$3.5 billion.

New Zealand’s major exports to Malaysia include milk powder, butter, malt and dairy products, while its imports are crude petroleum oil, oil cake, and electronics.

"We particularly agreed that once he (Guan Eng) gets his budget done, we can talk again about how we can develop those opportunities,” he said, adding that New Zealand was a huge producer of food products.

Robertson who arrived here Saturday, left here later yesterday to attend the Apec Finance Ministers’ Meeting and Related Meetings with ABAC Dialog in Papua New Guinea.

During his visit here, Robertson also met Economic Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali and Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman in his capacity as New Zealand’s Sport and Recreation Minister.  —Bernama