New Zealand has a modern and deregulate telecommunications infrastructure. This will be extended in the next few years as the country installs her submarine fiber-optic cables.

The government’s move to commercialize the telecommunications industry has prompted many north American corporations such as Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, NCI, Bell Canada, TCI, Time-Warner, Bell South and AT&T to make considerable investments in the IT sector.

The government is also promoting New Zealand as an international centre of excellence in information technologies and interactive communications.

It has already approved a project to build a National Research Computer Network which could use wideband telecommunications to link research institutes, universities and businesses to facilitate improved information flow and create a new knowledge-based industry.

The total IT industry for New Zealand this year amounted to almost US$ 1.5 billion. In 1995 the figure is expected to increase to more than US$ 2.1 billion.

-ITA