31 OCT:  New Zealand's trade minister said on Tuesday that it may be too late to make significant changes to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) after his new Labour-led government said last week it would seek to renegotiate the agreement. The Labour Party, which took the helm last week, has taken issue with the fact that the deal is at odds with its plans to ban foreign ownership of existing houses, a key campaign promise. The 11 TPP members had set a goal of reaching broad agreement on the pact on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting in Vietnam…

31 Oct:  Vector has announced it has executed a contract to provide metering services to EnergyAustralia with an initial three-year deployment period that will commence before the end of 2017. Vector Limited Group Chief Executive, Simon Mackenzie, said, 'We're excited to be working with EnergyAustralia as part of our long-term commitment to the Australian market. 'We pride ourselves on our proven and innovative delivery of advanced metering services in New Zealand and Australia, alongside our huge focus on health and safety. Vector is looking forward to building on our New Zealand experience and being part of EnergyAustralia's new Power of…

31 Oct:  Sandvik Materials Technology has signed an agreement to divest the welding wire operations to ESAB, a global leader in the welding industry and part of Colfax Corporation. The agreement completes the main step in the divestment plan for welding wire and stainless wire announced on 17 May 2017. The deal includes the production units in Sandviken, Sweden and Scranton, US as well as the global sales and product management organization; in total approximately 120 employees. Revenues for the welding wire business amounted to 470 million SEK in 2016. "We strongly believe that ESAB, with welding as its core…

31 Oct:  The Science for Technological Innovation (SfTI) National Science Challenge Board is providing $2m of funding for a project to develop adaptable, cheaply reconfigured, rapidly deployed ‘workforce’ robots able to learn from their environments. Project will examine how robotics can deliver an economic boost to NZ writes Stuart Corner for Computerworld New Zealand.  SfTI said the project would take a long-term view and examine how robotics could provide solutions for New Zealand’s economic needs. Specifically, the programme will look into automated and autonomous technologies for small scale, high value, production; delve into ‘learning’ robots; and look at how robots…