The State of e-New Zealand

Abstract

Our study is based upon publicly available sources of information. Internationally published statistics have been used to supplement New Zealand data to assess New Zealand's relative position. While international studies have provided some basis for comparison the supplementary information sourced for this study has enabled a more complete picture of New Zealand to be painted. The infrastructures we examine to make our assessment of E-New Zealand are those of Internet penetration and uptake the electronic banking backbone of the payments system and the telecommunications environment. We then use this base to explore the extent to which this infrastructural base is utilised in electronic commerce applications. While we acknowledge that it is limited by the shortage of reliable and publicly available information this analysis enables us to postulate some explanations for apparent and observed behaviours which may have led others to conclude that despite the infrastructural advantage New Zealand's application uptake is not as advanced.