Statistics New Zealand census of international trade in services and royalties show commercial services exports and imports have increased significantly.

Commercial services imports increased by 65.7% from $3.5 billion for the year ending June 2005 to $5.8 billion for the year ending June 2011 and accounted for 39.8% of total services imports compared to 30.3% in 2005.

Commercial services exports increased 60% or $1.5 billion from $2.5 billion in the year ending June 2005 to $4 billion in the equivalent 2011 period and accounted for 29.6% of total service exports, up from 19.8% in 2005.

Australia remained New Zealand’s top commercial services trading partner but there was strong growth from Asian markets.

Exports to Australia were worth $1.45 billion and comprised mainly of management fees, computer services and royalties that totalled $585 million or 40% of Australian exports, as a percentage of total commercial services exports increased from 23.2% in 2005 to 36.3% in 2011.

Commercial services imports to Australia totalled $2.31 billion and again major components were management fees, computer services and royalties, totalling $1.26 billion or 54.5% of trans-Tasman service imports, as a percentage of total commercial services imports they increased from 24.7% 2005 to 40.1% in 2011.

The United States remained our second largest trading partner in the commercial services sector with exports valued at $867 million driven by motion picture and television revenue.

Strong growth of commercial services imports from Asian market was demonstrated by Singapore and China representing a combined 8.1% of total imports up from 2.9% in 2005, driven by an increase in engineering services associated with the oil industry and imports from India grew from 0.3% in 2005 to represent 1.2% of the total in 2011.

Professional scientific and technical services were the largest commercial services exporters representing over $1.2 billion of the total and information, media and telecommunications were the second largest exporter.

The trend was reversed in the imports market with information, media and telecommunications the largest commercial services importer while professional, scientific and technical services were second.

Internet, email and phone represented 85.8% of exports and illustrated New Zealand’s geographic isolation.