Actions in recent months by parties linked to Dubai and China appear to support a New Zealand academic’s view that food security is a larger issue than has been given credit.

Dubai interests had agreed to fund the purchase of 28 Southland farms through a hapu until the deal collapsed last week, and Chinese interests have reportedly been looking to buy the…

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Mr Watt, who last year won $10,000 as part of his MacDiarmid young scientist of the year prize, today collected $150,000 - including $100,000 to be used to further research and commercialise his prize-winning technology - from Prime Minister John Key, who presented $1 million in science prizes at Auckland’s Stardome planetarium.

The presentations included the $500,000 top prize to two Industrial Research Ltd scientists developing superconductor technology, Dr Bob Buckley and Dr Jeff Tallon. The Prime Minister’s prizes were introduced …

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The NZ dollar rose in late morning trade yesterday after news that manufacturing sales volumes increased by a stronger-than-expected 3.1 percent in the December quarter, while residential building work rose 7.4 percent.

The kiwi peaked at a two-week high against the greenback around US70.35c about 3.30am, and by 8am was buying US70.03c, little changed from its 5pm level.

BNZ strategist Mike Jones said the NZ dollar was the strongest performing currency during the 24 hours to 8am.

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Total sales among the survey sample fell 3 percent, with export sales down 32 percent and domestic sales up 15 percent on a year earlier.

Net confidence rose to 45, from minus 11 the previous month.

Association chief executive John Walley said that although confidence had turned positive after two years in negative territory, that would be little comfort until sales and jobs started to pick up.

Markets were reportedly starting to improve, but the exchange rate continued to hit profitability, even in industries …

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NZX released the presentation under continuous disclosure obligations.

The presentation declares an “expected” investment of around $10 million to establish clearing house facilities - described as “the core we never had” - that are essential to running a derivatives trading platform, and to create a “fundamental change to NZX Business,” which is currently …

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The rise in manufacturing volumes was off a nine-year low in the September quarter, with volume increases recorded in 11 of the 15 industries surveyed, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said today.

The rise in the seasonally adjusted value of manufacturing sales was a more modest 0.7 per cent , or $139 million, in the December quarter, following four consecutive quarterly falls.

The smaller rise in values compared to volumes, came as values for basic metal manufacturing sales fell 19.1 per cent  or $128m, and values for meat and dairy product manufacturing fell …

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That left the seasonally adjusted change in the volume of all building work up 0.7 per cent, Statistics New Zealand (SNZ) said today.

The rise in the residential volume was the largest since 2004, while the fall in non-residential activity was the third in a row and meant the volume was 12.9 percent lower than in the March 2009 quarter.

For the December 2009 year, the unadjusted value of all building activity was $10.8 billion, down 13.7 percent from the previous year.

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The benchmark NZX-50 index closed up 8.172 points at 3222.815. It was the ninth consecutive rise in the index but the 0.254 percent rise was less than the 0.73 percent gain the Australian market had made when this market closed.

Turnover was worth $61.61 million. There were 50 rises and 28 falls among the 119 stocks traded.

“The Friday night markets were great around the world but today we are flat. I think we are stuck between the reporting season and the official cash rate decision on Thursday,” said …

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Check out the photo set on Flickr!

Media Contacts:

Dolly Seow-Ganesan
Sector Manager – Creative and Services
New Zealand Trade and Enterprise
Wellington, New Zealand
Mob: +64 275 401 476
Email: dolly.seow-ganesan@nzte.govt.nz

Malik Anwar Deen
Acting Trade Commissioner
New Zealand Trade & Enterprise
T: +65 6733 6889
M: +65 975 12306
E: abdul.malik@nzte.govt.nz

Donna Garcia
Senior Consultant
Rice Communications for NZTE
Mob: +65 9734 8808
Email: donna.garcia@ricecomms.com

This Student Media Team Project, dubbed the Singapore-NZ Connect, was organized by CORE Education, a New Zealand oraganization with core expertise in learning design, online communities, online tools for eLearning, video conferencing and the use of advanced networks in education.

CORE Education has collaborated with Campus Channel, a school IPTV platform, who set up screens around the venue of the conference and exhibition to display the videooconferencing activities as well as content generated from thisCity Life and Country Life project.

The students, mostly aged 9, participated in an interactive session where they got to learn more about the each other, including curriculum, language skills, culture, school life, and sang songs for one another.

In the following video, the students from Kahutara School in New Zealand are seen singing a Maori song to an enthusiastic audience of students from Innova, as well as Mr S Iswaran, the Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Trade and Industry and Ministry of Education.