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NZ US Council welcomes new arrangement for working holidays in USA

10 September 2007

The NZ US Council today welcomed the new arrangement, signed at today’s US NZ Partnership Forum, which extends the time tertiary students may work and travel in the United States.

“This new arrangement will be of real interest to New Zealand students.  It is fully in keeping with the spirit of an expanded partnership between the US and NZ which is under discussion at this week’s Partnership Forum”, says NZ US Council Executive Director, Stephen Jacobi.

Jacobi congratulates the US Government for making this new facility available.  It follows an earlier arrangement made by the NZ Government which extends the working holiday scheme to American students.

“People to people exchanges are a vital component of New Zealand’s multifaceted relationship with the United States.  Visits in both directions help foster understanding and make important contacts for the future and provide a boost to the efforts of Fulbright NZ which encourages academic exchanges in both directions.”

The new arrangement was signed for the United States by Assistant Secretary for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, Christopher Hill, who addressed the Partnership Forum this morning in Auckland. Chris Hill is joined at the Forum by around 50 American government officials and business leaders, making this the largest and most senior American delegation ever to have visited New Zealand.  The Forum concludes tomorrow after two days of discussion between New Zealand and US delegates on how the two countries can strengthen political, business and personal ties.

“The new working holiday arrangement provides another proof point on how much the relationship between New Zealand and the US has strengthened and of the value of these kinds of bilateral relationship building meetings,” says Jacobi.

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