Wellington, Jumada II 28, 1438, Mar 27, 2017, SPA -- China and New Zealand have agreed to a number of joint initiatives on climate change, tourism and education, Prime Minister Bill English announced Monday after meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. The two countries also will begin talks next month on upgrading their free trade agreement, English said, calling the deal, which went into effect in 2008, "an enormous success." With the agreement in place, trade between New Zealand and China "has tripled," reaching a high of 23 billion New Zealand dollars (16.2 billion dollars) in 2016, English said. That trade creates "jobs and opportunities for people in both countries," he said. "An upgrade will ensure this momentum continues and ensure that the FTA remains a modern agreement that tackles barriers our exporters face," English said. "It will assist progress towards our target of $30 billion two-way trade by 2020." The two countries also have agreed to explore other "economic opportunities, the statement said, such as China's Belt and Road Initiative, a project to develop a modern silk road. They also agreed to increase the number of direct flights between China and New Zealand to 59 per week, up from 49. After Australia, China is New Zealand's second-largest trading partner. Last year, New Zealand saw visits from 400,000 Chinese tourists, who spent more than 1.6 billion New Zealand dollars - and nearly 35,000 Chinese students study there, according to an earlier release from the prime minister's office. Li arrived in Wellington on Sunday and will travel to Auckland on Tuesday. --SPA 07:05 LOCAL TIME 04:05 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/w362328