The funding will be used to boost the University of Canterbury’s Applied Immersive Gaming Initiative, which will research and accelerate public use of immersing gaming applications.

"New tech roles are highly paid generating new wealth for regional New Zealand and research has found that for every new tech role created 4.9 other support roles are created in a community."

The rising profitability reflects the wealth of experience, capital and scale the sector has built up; creating the foundations for widespread and stable growth”.

From its roots as a local Christchurch business to a multinational enterprise, tech firm Verizon Connect says Christchurch will always be its home.

The six Kiwis off to Vietnam as part of the ASEAN Young Business Leaders Initiative (YBLI) have now been named, tasked with exploring tech industry.

“When the ground shook, it also shook up local businesses, who started looking at new ways of working. They weren’t so dependent on physical offices."

"One of the Govt's top priorities is to help businesses grow by lifting the profile of the sector & attracting more investment from around the world."

“Not only do the telecommunications and IT sectors have the highest outlooks, technology professionals are in high demand too,” says Rogers.