Working Holiday Scheme deal reached with Finland

Young New Zealanders will be able to live and work in Finland for up to a year following today's signing of a Working Holiday Scheme between the two countries.

Young New Zealanders will be able to live and work in Finland for up to a year following today's signing of a Working Holiday Scheme between the two countries.

Economic Development Minister Jim Anderton signed the scheme on behalf of the New Zealand government when he met Finnish Trade and Industry Minister Mauri Pekkarinen at Parliament.

Mr Pekkarinen is in Wellington for official calls before travelling to Auckland in support of a visiting Finnish trade mission.

The scheme, which will come into effect later in the year, provides for an annual quota of 200 young New Zealand travellers, aged between 18 and 30, to spend time in Finland, and vice versa.

"New Zealand has a good relationship with Finland and we often share a common outlook on international matters. There has been frequent contact between our governments in recent years, following Finland's accession to the European Union in 1995," Mr Anderton said.

"The Working Holiday Scheme offers young New Zealanders a chance to get to know Finland, and it will encourage people-to-people links, which are the underpinning of good bilateral relations.

"Working Holiday Schemes also expose talented young people from other countries to New Zealand. Many of them continue to promote New Zealand as a great place to visit when they go home, and many return here as tourists or to become permanent residents," Mr Anderton said.

New Zealand now has 10 arrangements with European countries, with schemes having already been concluded with the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Denmark and Belgium.

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