11 January 2002

Businesses sent survey forms for Hutt City Council's broadband survey need to have their survey responses in to the Council by Tuesday 22 January, said Kim Kelly, General Manager of Hutt City Council's Strategic Development Group.

"The response to date has been encouraging, but the more surveys that are returned the more confidence we can have that our policy development will meet the needs of business and help us achieve our Knowledge Economy Strategy goals," said Kim Kelly.

"The survey is an attempt to find out whether access to broadband technology is holding up or preventing existing Hutt -based companies from expanding and tapping in to the global knowledge economy. While there is anecdotal evidence that broadband is an issue for some companies, we really need to know how many companies are in that group."

"We also want to ensure that companies thinking about locating their business in Hutt City can rely on a solid infrastructure," Kim Kelly said.

Hutt City's Knowledge Economy Strategy, released late last year has three key goals: 1. To be world-class centre for product development, design and manufacture 2. To have an infrastructure that supports innovation and rapid uptake of ideas and technologies 3. To ensure the whole community can support and share in the knowledge economy.

The survey is part of Hutt City's response to the call from central government, which noted that access to broad band is a major national infrastructure and enabler, which is essential if New Zealand is to move forward.

Industry NZ has funded two studies on high-speed telecommunications usage, needs and solutions (Otago-Southland, Far North - both reports are available at www.industrynz.govt.nz ).

Businesses can ring Rowan Ferguson on 570 6761 for a survey form, or complete one online at www.huttcity.govt.nz/survey.html

ENDS

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