IT recruiters see India as saviour

By ADAM GIFFORD

A shortage of information technology specialists has led to a recruiting mission to India to find up to 200 professionals.

The Immigration Service, Trade New Zealand and the Information Technology Association of New Zealand have teamed up to run the recruitment drive.

"We are using a 'New Zealand Inc' approach," said ITANZ executive director Jim O'Neill.

"We are helping Immigration devise screening techniques so we get people with the right skills in areas like Java, Oracle databases, web design and e-commerce.

"Potential migrants will need to have a good command of English-speaking and we are also looking for soft skills like the ability to work in customer environments - the nature of business in New Zealand is very customer-oriented."

Mr O'Neill said the three organisations and representatives from ITANZ member companies like Oracle New Zealand, Synergy, Candle and Fujitsu New Zealand, would hold seminars between October 9 and 12 in Hyderabad and Bangalore, key centres in the huge Indian IT industry.

Similar recruiting trips are likely to other Indian centres such as Bombay and Madras, and to South Africa, Zimbabwe and Europe.

Mr O'Neill said that while some migrants would have jobs lined up before they came, "any people we take from this process will be marketable."

He said that without the sort of IT skills being sought, New Zealand businesses would not be able to make the s changes they needed to be competitive internationally.

"What's happening in every other major economy suggests if you can't get IT skills you will go backwards," Mr O'Neill said.

"A great number of the skills we grow here leave, and because we don't have a growing economy and because of the downturn in confidence we can't attract our own people back.

"One of the places known to have huge number of people with IT skills is India. It produces on average 600,000 science or technical graduates a year. In 1997 we produced 1033 technical-related graduates."

The Immigration Service regional director for Asia and the Middle East, Arron Baker, said the evening seminars were being promoted in English language papers and professional journals, and the registrations could only be done electronically.

The seminars would include a presentation on New Zealand's immigration policies and a case study from the service's IT manager, Karun Shenoy, who is himself an IT migrant from India.

The Immigration Service is setting up a special unit to help IT professionals expressing an interest in immigration to New Zealand, which will be able to speed applications.

"We are competing with Australia, Canada, Germany and other countries for skilled migrants," Mr Baker said.

India had a booming IT industry, internationally successful companies and talented, qualified people, but emigration was still attractive.

New Zealand had to be sold as a package combining lifestyle and enjoyment. Cricket and the use of our locations for "Bollywood" films meant this country already enjoyed a relatively high profile in India.