The industry earned $2.6 billion, almost as much as the forestry and horticulture industries
All but $365 million came from offshore
There are 2,058 New Zealand companies working in the screen industry
54 percent of those businesses work in television production, but 54 percent of revenue comes from movies and short films
30 companies earned over $10 million
Regular readers will know that I have been living in New Zealand for five years, after immigrating here from the UK. Now the UK's Observer has deemed New Zealand 'Land of sunshine and affordable house-prices', with low unemployment and a great lifestyle."30 per cent of whom said they wanted to move to New Zealand for work, 91 per cent said they were after a change of lifestyle. And with good reason, it seems.I was lucky enough to have been born in Auckland so have dual nationality, but if you have the right qualifications or a trade you too could be living in Land of the Long White Cloud. The Observer goes on to highlight the range of skills that the New Zealand Government is advertising for:
Auckland and Wellington ranked fifth and 12th, respectively, out of 215 world cities for quality of life in this year's Mercer Quality of Living survey - London, by comparison, was 39th and Glasgow and Birmingham joint 55th.
Unemployment is also lower than in the UK, it is generally easier to get on the housing ladder, you are rarely more than an hour from the beach and there is lots of green space.
And the weather is probably warmer than you had imagined - most places in New Zealand enjoy more than 2,000 hours of sunshine a year, with the sunniest areas - Bay of Plenty, Hawke's Bay and Nelson/Marlborough - basking in more than 2,350 hours, according to Tourism New Zealand."
"Those who will be welcomed include health professionals, construction and engineering managers, water and civil engineers, surveyors, civil servants, IT professionals, accountants and trades people such as plumbers and electricians. The New Zealand government says it is looking for 35,000 IT professionals alone over the next 10 years and 300 jobs are available right now with four of the country's main technology companies.Those with the right skills could be eligible for permanent residency via the skilled migrant scheme. The scheme works by point-scoring those on the basis of a range of criteria such as qualifications, work experience, family connections and whether or not they already have a job offer.|I won't pull any punches - emigrating is one of the hardest things you may ever do. also with house prices it's a one way trip. If you are prepared to work hard and stick it out for at least 5 years then I can almost guarantee it will be worth it. As I often say - it's unlikely you'll become a millionaire in New Zealand, but you can live a millionaire's lifestyle here on a realistic budget.Anyone interested should fill in an expression-of-interest form from New Zealand's migration website. Applicants who score highly enough will then be selected for further checks before residency is granted. Last year 51,000 people were granted skilled migrant status, and 40 per cent of these were from the UK.'The whole process can take as little as three months. Preference is granted to those who are prepared to live outside of Auckland,' says Graham Baker, group manager of service delivery at New Zealand's immigration department."
