Mr Joyce, as both Economic Development Minister and Science and Innovation Minister, launched a $3 million programme to boost digital exports and technology incubators to speed company start-ups.
The minister is in Dunedin today, to speak to the sixth annual Angel Summit being held this week, as the city continues its campaign to stop AgResearch shifting 85 highly skilled scientific and other jobs from the Invermay research institute.
Mr Joyce has promised to review the decision to shift the jobs to either Lincoln or Palmerston North but has indicated the Government takes a hands-off approach to decisions made by the AgResearch board, despite appointing it.
Labour economic development spokesman David Clark said if the AgResearch business plan for Invermay was looked at, although much of it was blacked out, there was a clear level of detail revealed, right down to job numbers and the size and shape of campuses.
The plan was signed off by Mr Joyce before the consultation process.
''From an economic development point of view, there is a strong case for keeping Invermay in Dunedin to benefit the city and the rest of New Zealand. The minister chooses when to get involved or not. This is a prime opportunity here. He should step in to keep Invermay in its present form.''
Dr Clark was sceptical the funding announced by Mr Joyce was ''new money''. Money already allocated to the South was being put up for grabs as a way of shifting it north.
''Mr Joyce can dress it up as an opportunity for the South but the money is already allocated here. Putting it up for grabs again means less for the South. You can put lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig, for Dunedin,'' Dr Clark said.
Mr Joyce said yesterday the Government would invest more than $3 million over the next three years to take advantage of the opportunity created by the global boom in demand for the digital technologies that were revolutionising the nature of businesses in all sectors.
The digital economy contributed more than $2 billion in export earnings last year and exports of computer and information services had grown at more than 10% a year between 2002 and 2012.
Almost 75% of revenue from New Zealand's top 100 technology companies came from international markets, he said.
''More than 62,000 people are already employed in our wider ICT sector and our investment will help create significant additional export revenues over the next four years.''
The programme would target high-impact, high-value opportunities companies could not easily access alone, Mr Joyce said.
For the technology incubators, new repayable government grants of up to $450,000 per company would be invested into technology companies to help them get started.
The repayable grants would be distributed by a new type of private-sector led technology incubator, which would add its own funding to provide at least 25% of the start-up company's cost, on a one-for-three basis.
Up to four incubators were planned and the total government cost of the scheme would be $31.3 million over four years. Funding for the programme was set aside in the 2013 Budget, he said.
Funds for the repayable grants and the incubators would be distributed by Callaghan Innovation, the Government's new High-Tech HQ for Kiwi businesses. The first of the new incubators was expected to be operating by July next year.
''The new grants will be used to fund any of the costs associated with further developing or commercialising intellectual property in the start-up companies,'' Mr Joyce said.
