New Zealand Aims To Increase High-Tech Service Exports

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 15 (Bernama) – New Zealand aims to increase and diversify its exports in the technology and innovation services sector, as it continues to build strength through collaboration with local partners. New Zealand’s Trade Commissioner to Malaysia, Simon Hearsey, said Malaysia is one of New Zealand’s top 10 trading partners and the country is looking to expand and develop a long-term relationship, especially in the agriculture technology segment. “We are looking forward to collaborating with the local agriculture industry especially in farming technology to make it more efficient,” he said. New Zealand is well known for its agricultural products, and its main exports; the agriculture sector contributed NZ$3.205 billion (NZ$1=RM2.70) in the first quarter of 2018 towards its gross domestic product (GDP). New Zealand’s GDP stands at NZ$310 billion in 2017. Hearsey said New Zealand technology companies are also looking into partnerships with local healthcare centres to further strengthen their operations in the patient data systems as well as improve efficiency and profitability. “Companies such as Orion Health and Datacom have had a strong presence in Malaysia for a long time. We aim to share and further develop the technologies with our partners in Malaysia,” he said. Orion Health is an eHealth software company which delivers interoperable solutions for hospitals and healthcare facilities, while Datacom is an information technology services company, offering management and consulting, cloud services, information technology outsourcing, data centre services, custom software development, business process management and payroll services. Recently, he said seven top New Zealand technology companies made a pitch to local hospitals for their integrated data systems and so far the response has been positive. “Even though we are new in the technology export industry, we believe that we could make a difference by collaborating with local players,” he said. According to data from the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), from January until May 2018, Malaysia's trade with New Zealand increased by 0.8 per cent to RM3.27 billion compared with RM3.24 billion (US$1 = RM4.10) for the same period in 2017. For 2017, total trade increased by 33.4 per cent to RM7.87 billion from RM5.9 billion in 2016. Malaysia's exports increased by 48.6 per cent to RM4.51 billion from RM3.04 billion in 2016, while total imports increased by 17.3 per cent to RM3.36 billion from RM2.86 billion in 2016. The top exports to the country in 2017 included crude petroleum and electrical and electronic products, while imports were mainly processed food and other agricultural products. -- BERNAMA