Background
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Supply Survey measures the sale of goods and services from businesses associated with ICT industries, based on OECD definitions.
This is the first release of ICT Supply Survey 2007/08 statistics that covers the last financial year as at August 2008.
Data from the survey will be included in the OECD Science, Technology and Industry scoreboard (www.oecd.org/sti/scoreboard) later in 2009.
This is the first release of ICT Supply Survey statistics on the basis of the Australian New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) 2006. Further information can be found in the Technical Notes section of this release.
Total ICT sales
Results from the ICT Supply Survey for the 2008 financial year show that total sales of ICT goods and services were valued at $19,346 million. The majority ($17,935 million) were sold domestically, while $1,412 million were sold to export markets.
Total ICT sales grew by 3 percent on the previous year's figure of $18,787 million. This was driven by a 4 percent growth in domestic sales, while export sales fell by 8 percent.
Total sales of ICT commodities
In 2008, sales of ICT services increased 3 percent to $10,011 million, while sales of ICT goods (including published software) increased 4 percent to $9,335 million.
Sales of telecommunication and program distribution services remained the most significant commodity. At $5,875 million, this accounted for one third of total sales. This was followed by computer and related equipment with $3,465 million.
Export sales of ICT goods and services
For the 2008 financial year export sales of ICT goods was 72 percent of the total export value ($1,412 million). Export sales of ICT services were $397 million, 28 percent of total ICT export value.
The ICT commodity with the largest export sales was electronic components with $281 million, which is 20 percent of the total ICT export sales. This was followed by telecommunications equipment with $232 million.
ICT sales by business size
There were 2,283 businesses that reported sales of ICT goods and services in the 2008 financial year. This was an increase of 30 businesses on the previous year's figure. In 2008, 1,923 businesses were classified as small, 210 as medium and 153 as large.
For total sales of ICT goods and services, the larger businesses remained dominant in the 2008 financial year, accounting for $14,411 million (75 percent) of total ICT sales. ICT sales for small businesses were $3,415 million. This was over twice that of medium businesses ($1,521 million) although there were more than nine times as many small businesses as medium businesses.
Small businesses in general accounted for a smaller proportion than large businesses of ICT sales in most commodities, however, for the sales of training and education in ICT, small businesses played a leading role with 65 percent of the total sales of $40 million.
---PDF BREAK---
ICT sales, by industry
The industry with the largest ICT sales was telecommunication services with $6,657 million, around one third of the total ICT sales. This was also the largest in the 2007 financial year with $6,649 million of sales.
The wholesale trade industry was the second largest in both years, with $6,476 million of ICT sales in the 2008 financial year, up from $6,086 million in 2007.
ICT manufacturing industry sales decreased 8 percent, to $956 million. Whereas, the total New Zealand manufacturing sector grew 0.9 percent during the similar period (Gross Domestic Product: March 2008 quarter).
For the 2008 financial year, the number of businesses with ICT sales in the
computer system design and related services industry accounted for 51 percent (1,173 enterprises) of total businesses with reported ICT sales. The computer system design and related services industry accounted for 15 percent of the total ICT sales and 88 percent of these were small businesses.
ICT industry barriers to growth
The most commonly reported barrier to business growth was strength of competition, reported by 29 percent of businesses in 2008. This was followed by the ability to attract and/or retain experienced staff (27 percent), and the ability to attract and/or retain qualified staff (24 percent). Twelve percent of businesses reported they had not experienced any barriers to business growth. These findings are in line with 2007 results.
For technical information contact:
Will Lu
Wellington 04 931 4600
Email: info@stats.govt.nz