NZTech Inform – our ongoing team effort

Last week’s NZTech Annual General Meeting provided an opportunity to pause and take stock of how much has happened in the past year.  You can learn more about what NZTech has been doing to support the New Zealand tech ecosystem in our 2021 Annual Report.

We couldn’t have achieved so much without the support of an enormous team of volunteers across the Tech Alliance in executive councils, working groups and events.  Thank you to everyone who has helped.  I’d also like to welcome the re-elected and new board members Air New Zealand’s Anthony Watson, Eva Sherwood, Deloitte, Steph Creasy, ANZ, Belinda Allen, Healthpoint and CodeHQ’s Mitchell Pham.  View the full leadership team and new board here. Special thanks to our retiring board members, Anand Ranchord, David Hook, Elia Chan and Nicole Upchurch.

There is still plenty of work to do… the Digital Technologies Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) is with the Minister for review, the AI Forum continues to work on the national AI Strategy and we continue to address both ends of the skills challenge.  This includes motivating more students into tech careers and encouraging the Government to review the barriers to bringing in critical digital skills via immigration.

Speaking of the skills challenges, I often hear perceptions that Australia has better settings than New Zealand.  However, last week, the CEO of NZTech’s equivalent in Australia said, “Australia’s ICT sector is overly reliant on overseas labour and there is a need to nurture and build a strong ICT workforce to be able to protect our economy.” 

With strong collaboration between the Government and the tech sector via the ITP, I am confident that we will be able to double down and start building a strong domestic pipeline of amazing local talent.  Meanwhile, we are continuing our efforts in trying to establish more efficient and successful pathways for the critical international talent that will be needed to help us get there.

Ngā mihiGraeme Muller
CEO
NZTech

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