NZTech chief appointed to world tech board

Auckland – The leader of all things tech in New Zealand, NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller, has been elected to the board of the World Information Technology and Services Alliance (WITSA).

The alliance is the leading recognised international voice of the global ICT industry, whose members from over 80 countries represent more than 90 percent of the world ICT market.

Muller says WITSA is dedicated to advocating policies that advance economic growth and development; facilitating international trade and investment in ICT products and services; and provide tech firms around the world with a broad network of connections.

“This is a great channel for helping raise the awareness globally that New Zealand is a leading hi-tech nation. There are huge opportunities for New Zealand tech firms to grow internationally and I will be working to ensure policies and relationships are in place to help them throughout the world.”

Because the challenges facing the ICT industry are undisputedly global in nature, WITSA members work together to achieve a shared vision on important issues of common interest.

WITSA makes it possible for its members — ranging from Mongolia and Argentina to Kenya and the United States — to identify common issues and priorities, exchange valuable information, and present a united position on industry issues.

“The New Zealand tech sector is growing at unprecedented rates and now accounts for 9 percent of GDP and employs 5 percent of the workforce. But the big opportunity is the growth of exports, worth $6.3 billion in 2015 and on track to cross the $10 billion mark by 2018 at current growth rates.

“By getting onto the WITSA Board I hope to be able to develop international relationships to help smooth the way for our exporting tech firms and raise the global awareness of how advanced New Zealand firms are.”

“NZTech has been able to expose a number of hi-growth New Zealand tech firms to international recognition with one in particular, ARANZ Medical winning the Global ICT Excellence Award, the equivalent of an Oscar for the tech sector,” Muller says.

New Zealand’s leading 200 hi-tech companies have reached combined annual revenues of $9.4 billion – up 12 per cent in just one year, according to the annual Technology Investment Network’s TIN 100 report just released. Top performers include companies like Datacom Group, Fisher and Paykel Healthcare, Gallagher Group and Xero.

“We have hundreds of world class tech firms and market leaders, and amazing new successful firms emerging every year. We’re really excited about our planning for Techweek 2017. We are pulling together hundreds of tech and innovation conferences, events and activities right across New Zealand for a week in May (6-14) next year. This will be huge,” Muller says.

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