New Zealand and Colombia

Relations with Colombia are good, but the level of contact is modest, reflecting Colombia’s domestic and regional priorities and the relatively low level of trade.

Prime Minister John Key met President Uribe in November 2008, in Lima, Peru.

New Zealand and Colombia are cooperating to address greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural sector through participation in the Livestock Emissions and Abatement Research Network (LEARN).

Trade and economic links

New Zealand exports to Colombia grew from NZ$0.4m in 1990 to NZ$25.7m in 1997, but have declined since then as dairy exports to Colombia have decreased. Exports in 2008 were NZ$7.4 million. Import levels from Colombia have grown from around NZ$5 million each year from 2001-2005, to just under NZ$10 million in 2008. Bilateral trade is dominated by exports of electronic machinery and imports of coffee.

People to people links

Education and exchange programmes

Productive working relationships have been developed by the New Zealand Embassy in Chile with the scholarship agencies Colfuturo and Icetex. Both are interested in closer engagement with New Zealand universities and in student mobility in both directions.

The Embassy has also established contacts with individual universities that are interested in engaging with New Zealand counterparts, and has run visa workshops for education agents. New Zealand institutions also visit the market in increasing numbers for annual education fairs.

New Zealand is becoming a very attractive country to study for Colombian students, particularly in English language courses, with some interest in postgraduate study.

The number of Colombians choosing to study in New Zealand has steadily increased in the last five years. During 2007/2008 the number of student visas issued almost doubled, from 196 in 2006/2007 to 292 in 2007/2008. At the moment, there are three exchange programmes approved by the NZ Ministry of Education, Immigration NZ and Colombia:

• Christchurch Rudolf Steiner School / Colegio Luis Horacio Gomez, Colombia – current since June 2008 for 5 students per year for a stay up to 12 years
• Taikura Rudolf Steiner School / Luis Horacio Gomez Waldorf School, Colombia – current since May 2008 for 16 students per year for a stay up to 6 months
• Victoria University/EAFIT University, Colombia – current since June 2008 for 15 students per year for a max stay of 12 months.

Immigration and Tourism

There are an increasing number of short term visitor arrivals from Colombia to New Zealand (1,151 Colombians visited New Zealand in the 2007/2008 year, and figures for the 2008/2009 year to date suggest that numbers will be higher).

The British Embassy in Bogota, Colombia used to issue visitor visas on behalf of New Zealand, but this stopped on 1 July 2008. All visa applications are now processed by the New Zealand Embassy in Chile.

Political links

Multilateral links

Foreign, agriculture and trade ministers from the two countries have met periodically at meetings of the United Nations, Cairns Group, World Trade Organisation and the Forum for Latin America and East Asia Cooperation.

Colombia is participating in the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation talks.

Development assistance

The New Zealand Agency for International Development provides a small fund for discrete development projects in Colombia. This Head of Mission Fund, as it is called, provides NZ$25,000 per year and is administered by the New Zealand Embassy in Chile.

Honorary Consul

New Zealand has an Honorary Consul resident in Bogotá and the New Zealand Ambassador in Santiago is cross-accredited to Colombia. The Colombian Ambassador in Tokyo has been cross-accredited to New Zealand since the Colombian Embassy in Wellington was closed in 1999.

The New Zealand Honorary Consul in Bogota, Colombia, is Mrs. Annette Pearsohn
Telephone: 57 3102307795
A.A. 30402
Email: NZ Honorary Consul