Innovation

Today is the fourth of five days of Visionweek NZ 2020, the virtual event asking ‘What next for New Zealand?’ in the wake of the biggest pandemic in our lifetime. The week-long summit hosts some of the country’s most well-known names across a variety of topics key to New Zealand’s future, including business, infrastructure, housing, science, tourism, technology, transport, health …

Visionweek NZ 2020 kicked off today, asking us to imagine if New Zealand’s five million-strong population set a vision for our future that ensures New Zealand’s long-term sustainability, productivity, resilience and high-quality outcomes for all people, communities and the environment. The week-long programme features prominent New Zealanders, including Xero founder Rod Drury, Sir Stephen Tindall, economist Shamubeel Eaqub, Rocket Lab’s …

Kylie Quinn, RMIT University and Kirsty Wilson, RMIT University A new trial has begun in Victoria this week to evaluate a potential vaccine against COVID-19. The vaccine is called NVX-CoV2373 and is from a US biotech company, Novavax. The trial will be carried out across Melbourne and Brisbane, and is the first human trial of a vaccine specifically for COVID-19 …

Alexander Gillespie, University of Waikato Reaction to the New Zealand government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and resultant lockdown has ranged from high praise to criticism that its actions were illegal and its management chaotic. Partly in response to the concerns, and to put the continued containment of the disease on a firmer legal footing, the COVID-19 Public Health Response …

Mahmoud Elkhodr, CQUniversity Australia New Zealanders finally have access to the Government’s new tracing app to help people monitor their movements as lockdown continues to ease. As businesses can now open, the NZ COVID Tracer app allows people to keep a register of the places they visit. This “digital diary” can be used to contact people if it finds they …

New Zealand’s startups and their founders are our untapped powerhouse of problem solvers, says Suse Reynolds. Startups are not SMEs. We are talking about a cohort of super ambitious, high growth, tech-rich businesses with highly driven teams which are generally venture investment-backed. These businesses are developing solutions to problems with highly valuable, large and sometimes new, markets. They are businesses like …

Infrastructure NZ’s Paul Blair tells Tim McCready that infrastructure investment and construction will play a major role in New Zealand’s economic recovery programme – but central and local government collaboration is required to make it happen. Infrastructure NZ – New Zealand’s peak infrastructure body representing 140 public and private sector industry members – says the Government’s response for the infrastructure …

Tim McCready looks at some of the innovation emerging from New Zealand businesses in the face of adversity. Let us know what has been missed – from New Zealand and around the world. Restrictions imposed by the Covid-19 lockdown have caused some businesses to consider closing up shop for good. While some have taken this route, others have used the …

Inside the 2018 China Business report we took a look at: Bin Liu on China’s economic transformation Liam Dann on why there may be no meltdown Gabriel James on consumer confidence and blockchain Huawei leads next-gen digital push Michael Barnett on the prospects for SMEs Hong Kong – gateway to Asia

The 2017 Project Auckland report took a closer look at key current affairs in Auckland at the time: Getting on track Firm foundation View from the summits Closer relationship On the grid Taking heart