Background
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Supply Survey: 2006/07 is the third of a time series, based on OECD definitions to measure the ICT industry. The ICT Supply Survey: 2006/07 measures the sale of goods and services from businesses associated with ICT industries. The ICT Supply Survey replaced the previous Statistics New Zealand Information Technology (IT) Survey (1993–2004).
Data from the ICT Supply Survey: 2006/07 will be included in the OECD Science, Technology and Industry scoreboard (www.oecd.org/sti/scoreboard) which will be updated later in 2008.
Total ICT sales
Results from the ICT Supply Survey for the 2007 financial year show that total sales of ICT goods and services were valued at $18,228 million, with 91.6 percent ($16,703 million) of this value being sold domestically, and 8.4 percent ($1,525 million) being sold to export markets. This is a 3.3 percent increase in total sales, with domestic sales rising 4.2 percent and export sales down 5.3 percent from the 2006 financial year.
Sales of ICT commodities
For the 2007 financial year, sales of ICT services increased 2.5 percent to reach $9,756 million, while sales of ICT goods (including published software) increased 4.3 percent to $8,472 million.
Telecommunication and program distribution services remains the most significant commodity with a 1.5 percent increase in sales to reach $5,891 million.
In the 2007 financial year, electronic components had the largest increase in sales, up by 29.5 percent to $777 million. Electronic devices and equipment had the largest decrease, with sales down 19.7 percent to $767 million in 2007.
Export sales of ICT commodities
For the 2007 financial year, sales of ICT goods were 73.1 percent ($1,115 million) of the total export value ($1,525 million), while ICT services were 26.9 percent ($410 million) of the total.
Even though export sales of electronic devices and equipment decreased $219 million to reach $304 million in 2007, it still remains the highest-value exported commodity category, with 19.9 percent of the total export value.
Electronic components and IT design, consulting and development services overtook telecommunication equipment, ranking second and third largest commodities with export sales, respectively.
ICT sales, by industry
This is the first time that Statistics New Zealand released figures of ICT sales by industry. Historical data were also published based on the dataset collected in 2004/05 and 2005/06 financial years.
ICT manufacturing sales decreased 10.8 percent, to $1,054 million. ICT manufacturing includes computer and business machine manufacturing, telecommunication, broadcasting and transceiving equipment manufacturing, electronic equipment manufacturing, electric cable and wire manufacturing, professional and scientific manufacturing, and medical and scientific manufacturing.
ICT related wholesale trade increased 4.7 percent, from $5,296 million in the 2006 financial year to $5,546 million in the 2007 financial year. The ICT wholesale trade industry includes computer wholesaling, business machine wholesaling, electrical and electronic equipment wholesaling, and professional equipment wholesaling.
Telecommunication services, the largest ICT sales industry, remained relatively steady with a small increase of 0.1 percent in the 2007 financial year.
Computer services had the largest increase in sales and represented 20.9 percent of total ICT sales ($3,810 million out of total ICT sales of $18,228 million). Computer services includes data processing services, information storage and retrieval services, computer maintenance services, computer consultancy services, and plant hiring and leasing.
ICT business, by industry and business size
In the 2006/07 ICT Supply Survey population, 2,181 enterprises with two or more employees sold ICT goods and services, an increase of 93 enterprises from the 2005/06 population. Of these, 1,842 (84.5 percent) were classified as small, an increase of 81 enterprises. There were also 198 medium-sized ICT businesses (9.1 percent of total), an increase of 3 enterprises; and 141 large businesses (6.5 percent of total), an increase of 9 enterprises.
For the 2007 financial year, the number of enterprises with ICT sales in the computer consultancy services industry increased by 105, to 1,155 enterprises. This was 53 percent of the total population of enterprises with ICT sales (2,181).
For the purpose of the ICT Supply Survey a small business is defined as having two to less than 20 rolling mean employees (RME), a medium-sized business as having 20 to less than 50 RME, and a large business as having 50 or more RME.
ICT sales, by business size
In total sales of ICT goods and services, the larger enterprises were once again dominant in the 2007 financial year, accounting for $13,625 million (74.7 percent) of total ICT sales. Medium-sized businesses contributed $1,485 million (8.1 percent) and small businesses $3,118 million (17.1 percent).
For the 2007 financial year, sales of ICT goods from small businesses increased $150 million to reach $1,883 million. Sales for medium-sized businesses decreased $152 million (to $918 million) while sales for large businesses recorded an increase of $350 million (to $5,671 million).
In 2007, sales of ICT services from medium-sized businesses decreased $88 million to $566 million, while small and large businesses experienced increased sales of $279 million and $45 million, respectively.
For telecommunication and program distribution services, 93.9 percent of its total sales was dominated by large businesses, the highest compared with other large businesses in other categories.
ICT industry barriers to growth
For the ICT Supply Survey 2006/07, strength of competition remains the greatest barrier to business growth, at 27.8 percent. However, comparing 2007 with 2006, there was a 14.5 percent decrease in the number of enterprises reporting this as a barrier.
The ability to attract and/or retain experienced staff (27.5 percent) and the ability to attract and/or retain qualified staff (26.3 percent) categories were the second and third greatest barriers reported, increasing by 8 percent and 2.9 percent, respectively.
For technical information contact:
Guannan Miao
Wellington 04 931 4600
Email: info@stats.govt.nz