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Exports boom for New Zealand's growing high-tech sector

Xinhua, October 19, 2016 Adjust font size:

The exports of New Zealand's 200 largest high-tech firms jumped by 13.5 percent to almost 7 billion NZ dollars (5.04 billion U.S. dollars) in the last financial year, Science and Innovation Minister Steven Joyce said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, their combined annual revenues were up 12 percent to 9.4 billion NZ dollars (6.77 billion U.S. dollars, Joyce said in a statement citing the annual Technology Investment Network TIN 100 report released Wednesday.

The total number of employees was up 7.9 percent, with nearly 3,000 new jobs created, meaning the top 200 companies now employed almost 40,000 people, said Joyce.

Revenue grew across all three main tech sectors -- high-tech manufacturing, ICT and biotech -- and across all twelve secondary sectors.

Healthcare was the largest secondary sector with annual revenue of 1.69 billion NZ dollars (1.21 billion U.S. dollars), while the digital media and financial services technology sectors, with a total of 23 companies, each grew by over 20 percent.

"It's particularly good to see that research and development across the TIN companies grew by a record 16 percent in the last year to 827 million NZ dollars (595.77 million U.S. dollars)," Joyce said.

"This is a real investment in the future of these companies, and will help lift overall the investment levels of New Zealand companies in research and development." Endit