India IT skills drive seen as foundation for global plan

By ADAM GIFFORD

The Immigration Service wants to get more IT companies and Government organisations involved in future recruiting drives in India.

The service, Trade New Zealand and representatives of Fujitsu New Zealand, Net-Logic and Cognix Group held seminars in Bangalore and Hyderabad this month attended by more than 400 Indian IT professionals.

The seminars included presentations on this country's economy, infrastructure and immigration requirements, as well as three hours of one-on-one interviews with prospective migrants.

Immigration Service Asia/Middle East market manager Arron Baker said the companies were able to sign up recruits, including an Oracle database administrator and a Java application developer, on the spot.

"The secret was having the employers there with the ability to assess what they had a pressing need for," Mr Baker said.

"The candidates could see there was a fast track and that the employer was genuine."

Attendees were also given contacts for New Zealand-based IT recruitment companies and employment websites.

Mr Baker said he was keen to make the recruitment efforts part of a formal strategy to bring in quality skilled people to boost the knowledge economy.

"I will take this back into my organisation and Itanz [the Information Technology Association of New Zealand, which co-sponsored the seminars] and work out a broader partnership."

He said New Zealand should now develop a formal, integrated global strategy, involving the private sector and sponsorship, to attract knowledge-economy migrants.

The seminars generated a lot of follow-up e-mail into the service's New Delhi office.

"There was momentum generated in the market so we will follow up with a similar exercise with larger private-sector involvement. We will focus more specifically on recruitment, so we will get a database of potential employers."

He said Indians were familiar with New Zealand because of cricket and "Bollywood" films set here.

"What people wanted to know about was employment and costs, so rather than focus on clean, green pastures we can focus on the maturity of our telecommunications, the IT industry and infrastructure issues."

The campaign needed to emphasise that a New Zealand salary still meant a lifestyle equivalent to that of a higher-paid job in the United States.

Mr Baker said the trip showed there was room for a different sort of seminar, focusing on business-to-business opportunities.

"We visited the Tata and Satyam IT consultancies, who had clear ideas about investment and collaboration and outsourcing.

"They are looking to develop markets overseas, and they also have the capacity to do cost-effective IT development.

"Businesses in India are also interested in the concept of New Zealand as a proving ground for new technologies. We are a small, advanced market where they can release things and iron out the bugs."

Mr Baker also met an entrepreneur interested in moving his internet business to New Zealand for lifestyle reasons, and wanted to be able to bring key people out.

"We've got to more clearly enunciate what New Zealand's value is, and why they could choose New Zealand over Australia not only as a place to come and work but as a place to set up a business."

Itanz executive director Jim O'Neill said the drive was an extremely worthwhile mission, even though New Zealand recruitment organisations were not represented this time around.

He said this country had 2000 IT vacancies, and the India venture was an extremely cost-effective way to recruit.

"It's also obvious it has to be done with the authorities there. The Immigration Service was able to cover things like residency qualifications.

"That made the difference between this and what other nations do.

"It's not just an agency-driven event but 'New Zealand Inc'."