Technology is all around us, from the way we pay at the supermarket, to the care we get in hospital.
It’s the way of the future. So, the Government is developing a Digital Strategy, and has opened it up for public consultation.
“This is an opportunity for Kiwis to have a say on what a digital future looks like for New Zealand,” the Minister for the Digital Economy and Communications David Clark said.
Described by the minister as a blueprint for a higher productivity and lower emissions in the future, it’ll provide support for a rapidly-growing sector.
“Exports from the tech sector are worth over $11 billion. It's an industry that's growing 30 per cent faster than other industries in New Zealand and we know that it produces sustainable, high-value jobs that mean that New Zealand can trade in the world and they get past the issues of a large carbon footprint.
“Jobs like computer programming have huge returns to the country in terms of export dollars. In the year to March 2020, the average job in the gaming sector was worth over $400,000 in export revenue,” Clark said.
Many industry leaders are already coming forward with ideas.
Runaway Play is a Dunedin-based game developer and publisher. Its CEO Zoe Hobson said the opportunity to talk about what matters to the industry is vital.
“The games industry has done an incredible job of growing year-on-year. We've had 40 per cent growth year-on-year for the past few years, but for us to continue that growth there are some key things that we need moving forward from the Government."
Hobson said one of those key things is help with immigration.
“We have a real challenge in New Zealand with skilled talent.
"We're obviously growing our own, but that takes time. So, having the support of being able to bring skilled talent into the country is really important,” she said.
Another is support with tax rebates, with the minister admitting there are challenges from abroad with other countries poaching New Zealand's talent.
“We’ve seen that in the film sector, having support from Government has really helped that industry to grow, whereas the games industry really hasn’t seen that kind of support yet," Clark said.
“Australia has up to 40 per cent tax rebates coming in and they're right next door so for us to not have that in New Zealand is really challenging."
Hobson said New Zealand risked losing people to Australia.
"We've actually already seen that start to happen, we're going to lose our studios we're going to lose our IP so it’s so important that we get more support coming into New Zealand,” Hobson said.
She also wants to see a focus on inclusion and diversity.
“In the tech sector there're some groups that are really under represented including women and Māori.”
This is a concern shared with Animation Research Limited’s Sir Ian Taylor.
“But also beyond that, in this industry people with things like Tourette’s, autism, dyslexia, those are gifts in this industry and we need to make sure everybody's aware of that.”
Sir Ian said The Digital Strategy would be welcomed by industry, but he wants to see immediate action.
“There’re a whole lot of webinars proposed, when actually, our advice back to the Government right now is there is four things you can do immediately. The first, and that showed up in the Covid crisis, is fix the digital divide in our schools.
“Our rangatahi, our tamariki, need to be on the electronic highway to the world, and they're not.
"So, fix that, you don't need to talk about it, it's really clear. Let’s have no hui and more doey,” Sir Ian said.
One other issue he wants support with right now is MIQ.
Sir Ian said not being able to travel is damaging the sector’s opportunities to grow in a rapidly changing industry, and the MIQ process needed to be changed.
“We've got digital technology to help the government solve that problem, we're just begging for them to use it,” he said.
The Government said it was expecting a lot of feedback on the strategy, and it would take the time to process it before it can come out with a final strategy.
Public consultation is open until November 7, and can be found here.
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