US software manufacturers need enticement to set up in NZ

By ADAM GIFFORD

One of New Zealand's successful exports - software engineer Ben Wilde, who is working in Silicon Valley near San Francisco, for database giant Informix - has challenged the Government to change immigration rules so this country can attract people needed to drive the knowledge economy.

He says the United States makes it relatively easy for companies to get work visas for people with high tech and software skills.

In a letter to Research, Science and Technology Minister Pete Hodgson, Mr Wilde says this is one of the factors driving the economic and technology boom that country is experiencing.

"The trend tends to be to come into the country on a H1 or L1 visa, work towards getting your 'green card' and then move out of the large company into a small start-up with the hope that you can 'strike it rich' on an initial public (share) offering and/or just have the chance to work on

something new that you can really feel a part of," Mr Wilde says.

L1 visas are for employees transferring from overseas branches of US companies, and take about a week to process.

They allow people to work in the US for up to three years. H1 visas are for new foreign staff and take about 12 weeks to process.

He says foreign workers are a huge source of experienced engineering and management talent for start-up companies in the San Francisco Bay area, where he works, and across the country.

"Emulating US success requires New Zealand attracting some of the same IT workers, capital and companies down to here. New Zealand - government and private industry - needs to encourage more US software companies to open offices in New Zealand that actually do software development, rather than just set up sales offices."

An example is Pavilion Technologies, which has just bought Hamilton firm CSE to expand its software development capabilities at a fraction of the cost of US rates.

Where Mr Wilde is based, an application developer with two to four years' experience can expect to make about US$100,000 ($NZ217,000) a year and senior staff twice that.

He believes companies such as Microsoft, Sun, Oracle and Informix which already have New Zealand offices, should be encouraged to start software development here.

They should also be encouraged to develop relationships with universities and polytechnics to hire graduates with the promise of gaining experience in core technology.

He says New Zealand seems to have no equivalent to the L1 and H1 visas. "It should be a two-way flow. People like me will continue to leave New Zealand on those transfers, but what US engineering or management talent are we bringing down?"

Mr Wilde says the likely 2003 America's Cup challenge by Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison will focus a lot of Silicon Valley eyes on this country, and it is important New Zealand establishes a presence in the area to promote itself, advise people who might want to migrate here, and support New Zealanders already working in the industry.

"The nearest consulate is in Los Angeles it may as well be in Europe!"

Informix New Zealand managing director James Rae says fast-track immigration would allow him to expand to build applications for customers here and overseas.

"I'd be looking for people who have domain knowledge, not code cutters, who could transfer that knowledge here," Mr Rae says.