[WELLINGTON] Amazon has formally launched cloud services in New Zealand, dusting off a plan first announced in 2021 to invest more than NZ$7.5 billion (S$5.7 billion) in data centres in the South Pacific nation.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) will establish the AWS Asia-Pacific (New Zealand) Region to “help serve the growing demand for cloud services across the country and empower organisations of all sizes to accelerate their digital transformation”, Amazon said on Tuesday (Sep 2) in Wellington.
The construction, operation and maintenance of data centres would support more than 1,000 full-time jobs a year and add an estimated NZ$10.8 billion to New Zealand’s gross domestic product, Amazon said.
A timeline for the investment was not disclosed.
New Zealand is looking to attract more foreign investment to kick-start a sluggish economy that slumped into a deep recession last year and has struggled to establish any momentum since.
The government has reformed planning laws to speed up consents for new projects and adjusted visa settings to entice offshore investors and entrepreneurs.
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Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said that Amazon reported it was 20 per cent more expensive to build in New Zealand than in Australia, and that was why planning laws needed to change.
Local media reported that company executives and advisers at the launch event declined to specify plans, including the locations of any data centres.
The new region gives existing customers such as Xero and Kiwibank “a home-grown option to run workloads, store data locally, and deliver digital services with even lower latency”, which will allow them to develop new cloud-based products faster, Amazon said.
Luxon acknowledged the investment plan was first announced nearly four years ago, but said today was the live launch, and that it was a significant investment for the country.
“It’s been over a number of years, I’m not disputing that,” he said. “I’m celebrating the fact that we’ve got a big international investor here in New Zealand. That’s what we want to see a lot more of, and it’s consistent with the focus of this government, which is to welcome investment in this country because it drives jobs.” BLOOMBERG
