NZ ICT industry not slowing down

What global financial crisis? New Zealand's information and communications technology industry continued to grow at the same pace in the 2008 financial year as the year before, according to the country's official statistics organ.

(Kiwi money image by Annika Vogt, royalty free)

Total sales of ICT goods and services increased 3 per cent to NZ$19.3 billion in the 2008 financial year, Statistics New Zealand said in a statement issued this morning, noting that growth rate was similar to the 2007 figure.

The data is based on the agency's ICT Supply Survey, which Statistics New Zealand said included responses from all enterprise units with two or more employees engaged in ICT activity in the country, with a total of 2974 companies targeted. 78 per cent of those responded to the survey, with a much higher 100 per cent of a smaller category of key businesses in the industry responding.

The survey showed that the majority of revenue in the ICT industry ($17.9 billion) came from domestic sales, with the rest coming from export sales. The highest-ranking services were in the telecommunications and program distribution categories (including, for example, subscription television); at $5.9 billion, this category accounted for about a third of total NZ ICT sales.

The next most valuable categories were computer and related equipment, telecommunications equipment, audio and visual equipment and IT technical support and design, consulting and development services.

The news comes after an extensive wave of cost-cutting and redudancies have hit Australia's ICT industry over the past six months, which are not included in the survey. However, some industry analysts maintain the nation's ICT industry will weather the global financial crisis better than in other geographies, due to ongoing spending initiatives such as the Federal Government's $43 billion National Broadband Network and core systems upgrades by major banks.

The full report can be found on the Statistics New Zealand's website.