Infor, a leading provider of beautiful business applications specialized by industry and built for the cloud, today announced the winners of the 2016 Infor Excellence in Action Awards at the company's annual user

India has triggered the escape clause on dozens of bilateral investment treaties, aiming to renegotiate toward securing better protection from foreign litigation.

New Zealand's Ministry of Health has accepted Microsoft's Trusted Public Cloud services for advancing the country's electronic health service capabilities. Microsoft's core cloud services Azure, Office 365 and Dynamics CRM Online, have been successful in meeting the Ministry's requirements for storage of personal health information. St John's Ambulance Service and Plunket are the other New Zealand health providers that are currently using Microsoft's cloud services. These cloud services are also used by IT solution providers for the health sector, including Datacom, Stratos, Volpara, McKesson and Intergen. "I am delighted by this news as it further supports the ability for health…

Trade Minister Todd McClay says outcomes of the G20 Trade Ministers’ meeting held in Shanghai 9-10 July, are likely to be extremely important for New Zealand's trade interests. "This was a positive meeting for our core interests in trade and investment,” says Mr McClay. "There is a clear political will to build on the successes of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Nairobi Ministerial last year, which agreed to eliminate agricultural export subsidies, and to make progress towards concluding an Environmental Goods Agreement." In respect of the WTO, G20 ministers have committed to advance negotiations in a number of areas, including…

BEUMER Group - a leading global supplier of automated parcel and post distribution systems - has been awarded the contract to supply an automated material handling system in Freightways’ new South Island Hub at Christchurch Airport, New Zealand. BEUMER Group’s automated sortation system will be based on a state-of-the-art, energy-efficient LS-4000CB cross-belt sorter with the capacity to handle up to 15,000 items per hour. The system has been specifically designed to enable efficient handling of the high volume of items in a short window, including wine boxes and fresh fish polystyrene containers which are shipped through the Freightways Courier Network.…

The latest New Zealand Manufacturers and Exporters Association (NZMEA) Survey of Business Conditions completed during June 2016, shows total sales in May 2016 increased 5.37% (year on year export sales increased by 1.43% with domestic sales increasing by 13.87%) on May 2015. For results table and historical series, click here. In the 3 months to May, export sales increased an average of 0.5%, and domestic sales increased 3.9%. The NZMEA survey sample this month covered NZ$347m in annualised sales, with an export content of 66%. Net confidence fell to 33, down from 40 in April. The current performance index (a…

The Reserve Bank today, Monday 11 July 2016,  published a Bulletin article that explains the monetary policy decision-making process. Seven times a year, the Reserve Bank makes a decision on the appropriate Official Cash Rate (OCR) setting. The Reserve Bank conducts monetary policy to achieve the goals of the Policy Targets Agreement, but is faced with significant uncertainty when making OCR decisions. A robust system is needed to address the inherent uncertainty that the Reserve Bank faces when making these decisions. The Bulletin article describes the detail of this process. The article discusses: the research behind a monetary policy decision;…

New rules to move more with fewer trips Proposed changes to the Vehicle Dimensions and Mass (VDAM) Rule 2002 mean heavy vehicles can carry more freight or passengers on fewer trips, increasing efficiency while maintaining safety for road users, Associate Transport Minister Craig Foss says. “This is the first comprehensive review of the VDAM Rule in 13 years,” Mr Foss says. “Trucks move 91 per cent of New Zealand freight tonnage — about 215.6 million tonnes per year — around the country. That’s projected to increase by over 50 per cent in the next 30 years so it’s essential that…

Global Deployment agency Schawk has won a Gold Award at New Zealand’s Pride in Print Awards. The winning entry, Allen’s Sherbies, was produced for Nestlé and utilised the highly technical HD Flexo print technique. Working closely with the Christchurch NZ plant Amcor Flexibles Asia Pacific and Brandpack, the Allen’s SKU won the award in the Food and Beverage category. The winning entry was part of the suite of premedia work that Schawk continues to produce globally for Nestlé. “The award builds on industry recognition of the quality result delivered with HD Flexo printing and colour management for Nestlé. The award…

Work is now underway on the final project which will complete the upgrades of Auckland’s Northwestern Motorway, Transport Minister Simon Bridges has announced. Prime Minister John Key and Transport Minister Simon Bridges today turned the sod on the $100 million Lincoln to Westgate project. The upgrade will widen State Highway 16 from two to three lanes in each direction, creating extra capacity on Auckland’s motorway network to service the needs of the growing population in the west of the city. “The extra capacity will cater to the increased traffic which will use the Western Ring Route and the Waterview Tunnels…

Northport is calling for further discussions on "unbundling" alternatives to the growth issues facing Ports of Auckland although any decisions on more detailed studies into port relocation have been shelved for the incoming Auckland Council. The council’s Auckland Development Committee this week voted to simply refer the findings of the Port Future Study released last week to the new council elected in October. The study found that a new location was likely to be needed for the port which is facing growth constraints but in the interim there was a need to allow it to build extra berth space despite…