THE PRESS FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1984. A future in high technology

Press, 20 January 1984, Page 12

THE PRESS FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1984. A future in high technology

The group of Christchurch businessmen who envisage Christchurch as the leading centre in New Zealand for high technology need not look far for inspiration and examples. One small Christchurch company, for instance, outperformed international competition after being awarded a contract by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration; the task was to develop a concept in industrial electronics from abstract theory to a commercial product. Today, the company manufactures and exports the component to Europe and the company’s product is also manufactured under licence in Japan. Other successes could be cited, but this one serves well enough to show that Christchurch has the potential to compete with the rest of the world when it comes to certain technical and developmental skills. “High technology” has become something of a buzz-phrase. From Cabinet Ministers, the Industries Development Commission, and so on down, “high technology” is touted as a solution to a great many economic and unemployment ills. So it may be. The deliberate and purposeful application of resources to finding ways of turning advanced technical skill and knowledge to advantage can bring New Zealand tangible and substantial advantages. The danger is a blind acceptance of the curative powers of “high technology” as an ill-defined benefactor that will guarantee wealth and happiness so long as it is accorded the appropriate cargo cult reverence. The Christchurch group, drawing membership from several established organisations, wants to turn words into deeds. The aim of the group is not to set up businesses or even identify likely projects or products; it is to assist the establishment of industries with' the collective information and experience of the Christchurch business community by providing the kind of environment that will encourage the growth of inventive industries and businesses that adapt, develop, and eventually sell high technology. The main ingredients of these businesses will be brain-work, scientific knowledge, technical expertise, and a flair for innovation. The group of businessmen will concern themselves not so much with these ingredients, but with providing the circumstances in which they might better mix. The advance of technology to extremely specialised knowledge seems to imply a reversal of the customary roles of entrepreneur, technician, and engineer. The likelihood that these roles will be combined in one person must lessen as technology advances; further, the ideas for opportunities are likely to come from the technologist, not from the business leader. Engineering vision has led the way in the past to new ventures; today this is

more likely to be the only way. The provision of venture capital and of advisory services that draw on the business community’s knowledge of finance, marketing, and accounting could be the catalyst that encourages inventive technicians and engineers to get together with business people in ventures that promise mutual rewards. In the United States the concept is extended to industries in and around the universities, bringing a direct link between business, which provides the money, and research graduates and staff, who provide the expert knowledge. In this context, but without going to the formal liaison of campus industry, the University of Canterbury’s School of Engineering — and the electrical engineering division in particular — has a lot to offer the competitive world of industrial electronics and custom engineering for industry, as any open day at the university will confirm. This probably offers Christchurch, and New Zealand, the best openings in the world of high technology. Consumer electronics and computer hardware, for instance, are fields in which New Zealand would find it hard to compete. Saturation marketing and cut-throat pricing — a result of either much greater automation or much lower wage structures than prevail in this country — have given other countries a head start that is almost impossible to overcome. If New Zealand, and preferably Christchurch, is to profit from investment in electronic technology, the most appropriate course appears to be that which deals in customised technology, 'in supplying the answers to special problems, and in providing the expertise rather than the best price on big production runs. Christchurch’s isolation from large markets is less of a handicap when specialised, small electronic equipment can be air-freighted direct to customers. Even without the mass production of, say, transistor radios, these ventures can provide a valuable contribution in unskilled or semiskilled jobs: soldering, checking, packing, and the work provided in supporting industries would all help to alleviate the particularly high unemployment in Christchurch. Export incentives and Development Finance Corporation loans are a part of the Government help available; consideration could well be given to tax “holidays” in the infant years of new and even experimental industries. Properly monitored against abuse, the waiver of tax in early years has fostered technological development overseas. Much of this lies in the future. The first, hesitant steps are being taken only 'now. It is to the advantage of Christchurch, and a credit to the confidence and foresight of its business community, that the steps are being taken here.