Jan 18, 2018  -  More Tongan fresh produce will be exported to international markets with the opening of new pack houses in Tonga.  This should make a big difference to farmers who will be able to sell their crops and other products for export to New Zealand, said Edgar Cocker, CEO of Tonga’s Ministry Commerce, Trade, Innovation and Labour.

Jan 18, 2018  -PASADENA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Tetra Tech, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTEK) has announced  that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Norman Disney & Young (NDY), a leader in sustainable infrastructure engineering design. Established in 1959, NDY maintains offices throughout Australia, the Asia-Pacific region, the United Kingdom, and Canada. NDY incorporates innovative technologies and solutions into designs, helping to create environments that use less energy, recycle water, and provide safe and sustainable infrastructure.

“The addition of NDY to our sustainable infrastructure design practice will enable Tetra Tech to offer technically differentiated solutions to our commercial and government clients on a global scale,” said Dan Batrack, Tetra Tech’s Chairman and CEO. “NDY will join our high-end design team in the United States to provide worldwide coverage and complementary client relationships.”

“We are very excited to join Tetra Tech,” said Stuart Fowler, NDY’s CEO. “Tetra Tech expands our ability to provide our high-end services, provides opportunity for technical collaboration, and adds new clients. We look forward to further developing the science of sustainable design and providing industry-leading technical solutions.”

NDY is joining the Commercial and International Business Group’s Asia Pacific operations. The acquisition will be subject to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions.

About Norman Disney & Young

NDY is a global engineering design firm of more than 700 professionals operating across 13 offices in Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Hong Kong, and Canada. NDY provides sustainable engineering design services for the built environment, including commercial offices, education, health, industrial, mission critical, residential & hotels, retail and transport facilities. For more information about NDY, please visit ndy.com.

About Tetra Tech

Tetra Tech is a leading, global provider of consulting and engineering services. We are differentiated by Leading with Science® to provide innovative technical solutions to our clients. We support global commercial and government clients focused on water, environment, infrastructure, resource management, energy, and international development. With more than 16,000 associates worldwide, Tetra Tech provides clear solutions to complex problems. For more information about Tetra Tech, please visit tetratech.com, follow us on Twitter (@TetraTech), or like us on Facebook.

Any statements made in this release that are not based on historical fact are forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements made in this release represent management’s best judgment as to what may occur in the future. However, Tetra Tech’s actual outcome and results are not guaranteed and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions (“Future Factors”), and may differ materially from what is expressed. For a description of Future Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking statements, see the discussion under the section “Risk Factors” included in the Company’s Form 10-K and 10-Q filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Source:  View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180117005072/en/

Jan 18, 2018  - The Energy Efficiency and Conservation Authority (EECA) has supplied funds for New Zealand to acquire more electric vehicle  New Zealand to spend $3.74 million on cleaner transport.  New Zealand’s Energy and Resources Minister, Megan Woods, has announced that more electric vehicles will be arriving on the nation’s motorways, bus lanes and streets.

Jan 17, 2018  -  Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor travels to Europe today to speak at the Global Forum for Food and Agriculture, held during International Green Week in Berlin.

The forum’s theme is “shaping the future of livestock – sustainably, responsibly, efficiently”.

New Zealand’s leading role in the Global Research Alliance on Agricultural Greenhouse Gases was a large factor in the invitation to take part in the forum.

“The global challenge is to produce more food with less emissions intensity – this requires research and innovation and is key to meeting the projected increase in worldwide food demand of 70 per cent by 2050,” says Mr O’Connor.

At the forum, Mr O’Connor will highlight New Zealand’s leadership credentials in sustainable livestock production and build relationships with other agriculture ministers from around the world, including through bilateral meetings with counterparts from Argentina, Brazil, the European Commission, France, Germany, Lithuania, Mexico and Poland.

While there he will also engage with key European and New Zealand stakeholders with interests in the launch of EU-NZ free trade agreement negotiations, and Brexit.

“Rural communities across the world are often the life-blood of our societies and heritage. New Zealand is confident that an FTA between our country and the EU will provide opportunities for farmers in both Europe and New Zealand and facilitate greater agricultural cooperation, benefiting rural communities on both sides.”

He will also travel to Ireland, Denmark and Spain to meet his counterparts and discuss mutual issues affecting agricultural production and trade.

“Speaking of international influences on our primary sector, it’s good to see an uplift in dairy prices in the latest GDT overnight. Farmers will welcome this, especially those doing it particularly tough in our regions in drought.”

| A Beehive release   ||  January 17, 2018   |||

Jan 17, 2018  - The Taxpayers’ Union can reveal that a small government agency spent over $300,000 on ‘entertainment’ in 2015/16 – including a drag queen dinner and show for staff.  The Union gained receipts (available here) for Callaghan Innovation’s entertainment purchases via the Official Information Act.

Jan 16, 2018  -  The Government must keep its hands off motorists’ piggy bank, says the Taxpayers’ Union after the Transport Minister reportedly told stakeholders he’s considering using New Zealand’s roading fund for non-roading projects.

Jan 16, 2018 - Some Kiwi firms see the Amazon opening in Australia as a threat. Others believe it’s a massive opportunity to crack a major market in good company. Kevin Kevany discovers one of its biggest advocates.

Amazon.com.au’s opening in Australia is anything but a threat to New Zealand’s SME (small and medium enterprise) manufacturing sector. In fact, it could turn out to be one of the greatest boosts to our food and beverage, specialist clothing, hi-tech and other locally derived and targeted product producers in decades. Certainly since the global financial crisis.

And it can simplify any Kiwi company’s first foray into the prized Aussie market; always a daunting task for a first-timer.

One man voicing these optimistic predictions (“Amazon will be transformative for Australasia, given the relatively small size of the regional market”) knows what he is talking about too.

Paul Grey has made a great success of guiding similar product producers onto the Amazon marketplace – which has been described as “the Western world’s largest online retailer, offering customers almost any product, delivered almost anywhere, and all at very competitive prices”.

Grey has an established reputation for doing just that in Canada, the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain, plus many years’ experience helping Kiwi companies export into the US.

He now stands ready to provide his experience and skills in the Australasian market through his company, ExportX, plus his proprietary software which simplifies the process of getting products listed with Amazon.

“ExportX specialises in representing brands in the Amazon sales channel,” says Grey, adding that it's not trivial to do it properly. “We're closely involved in preparations for the Australia launch, and we're hoping many local businesses will choose ExportX to handle regional Amazon sales.

“In addition, our software arm offers A2X, which is a cloud service, automating the accounting for Amazon marketplace sales. A2X is already processing around $1 billion of third-party Amazon sales worldwide, for more than 1,000 sellers. It will likely be an essential system component for local businesses setting up to sell on the new website.”

Continue here to read the full article written by Kevin Kevany for NZBusiness  ||  January 15, 2018   |||

Jan 16, 2018 - Tomas Izo, a lead engineering director in machine perception at Google Research, will be an exciting speaker at the biggest global tech summit ever held in New Zealand in Auckland on February 19 and 20. The event, Digital Nations 2030, is an international meeting coinciding with the visiting ministerial and business delegations from the world's leading Digital Nations and the D5 meeting in Wellington next month. The D5 is a network of the world’s most advanced digital nations.

Jan 16, 2018  -  Retail card spending rose 0.5 percent in the December 2017 month when adjusted for seasonal effects, Stats NZ said today. This is the fourth consecutive monthly rise in retail card spending.December 2017 monthly retail card spending up

Jan 16, 2018 - The latest NZIER Quarterly Survey of Business Opinion shows a sharp drop in business confidence following the General Election, with a net 11 percent of businesses expecting economic conditions to deteriorate over the first half of 2018. Business confidence had fallen in the previous quarter ahead of the General Election, and it appears uncertainty over new Government policies have made businesses even more downbeat.