Partnership with British companies key to European tech market

By RICHARD PAMATATAU


Kiwi technology companies wanting to trade in the lucrative European market should look to form liaisons with British companies.

That was the message from Kevin Coleman, technology adviser to UK Trade and Investment, who was in New Zealand last week looking at the IT and communications sector.

The countries' shared cultural values and language went a long way to cementing business relationships, he said, and might prove beneficial as UK companies generally had a better view of what was needed to get on in Europe.

His organisation also had access to venture capital and companies looking for partners.

New Zealand's attempt to become a high-tech trading nation has caught the attention of UK Trade & Investment, which sent a scoping party recently to hunt potential business partners and great systems.

Coleman said the Kiwi reputation in this area was growing and there might be good partnership or investment possibilities here.

His role is to give UK Trade & Investment tips to make its IT industry stronger.

The "silicon fen" developing around Cambridge University was a good example of how clusters of organisations working together could move an industry sector forward, he said, with about 700 companies located there.

Across Britain, about 95,000 software companies work in the sector, which is worth up to about 31 per cent of the €700 billion European market.

For there to be innovation, there needed at some stage to be collaboration among organisations that have similar goals.

Although Britain was not known as a real centre of IT development like the United States, Coleman said in the mobile telecommunications arena with Vodafone it was a global leader.

Companies looking for an in to this market had to think about how content could be packaged and sold over a wireless network.