The applicants are hoping to be part of an expenses-paid recruitment drive conducted by New Zealand's capital Wellington, which aims to bring 100 IT professionals to the city.

SINGAPORE: More than 900 IT professionals from Singapore have applied to work in New Zealand's capital city Wellington, highlighting the growing fight for global talent in this arena.

Mr David Jones, general manager at Wellington Regional Economic Development Agency (WREDA), told Channel NewsAsia on Thursday (Feb 23) that Singapore is the second top market in registering interest in the city's LookSee Wellington initiative, behind the United States.



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More than 7,000 registrations have been started or completed so far, and most of the completed registrations to date pass the initial screening, which Mr Jones said reflects the quality of candidates.



The recruitment drive aims to bring 100 professionals to Wellington, with flights and accommodation paid for, to attend pre-arranged job interviews with employers who have roles that match their skills. The initiative is led by WREDA and Workhere New Zealand, which specialises in global talent attraction, and supported by the New Zealand Immigration Service and NZTech, according to a press release on LookSee Wellington on Tuesday.

Wellington mayor Justin Lester said in the press release that it was aware of the fierce competition globally for talented tech professionals, which was why it needed to be creative in "attracting attention".

“LookSee Wellington is about giving people who might be open to moving to this side of the world a chance to come and have a ‘look-see’ before deciding to relocate, and without having to pay to get here to inform their decision-making," Mr Lester said.



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“It’s also designed to make it easy for them to meet multiple employers - to make the best use of their time - and to get the chance to see and experience what else Wellington has to offer,” he added.

Among the tech companies looking to hire include the Oscar-winning digital visual effects company Weta Digital, Japanese tech giant NEC and online accountancy firm Xero.

IT talent is a hot commodity not only in New Zealand. Singapore, too, is looking to beef up its IT talent pool.



Recruitment firm Robert Walters in January said the IT market will likely continue to see high levels of recruitment this year as more companies jump on the digital bandwagon.



Government support, including the Singapore National Research Foundation's plans to boost the local start-up ecosystem, will also underpin "very high demand" for technology professionals such as user experience and user interface designers, as well as cybersecurity experts, it said.