Thursday 13October 2022

Minister for Information and Communications Technology, Timothy Masiu highlighted in Parliament yesterday (Wednesday 12 October 2022), his Department of Information and Communications Technology’s ongoing efforts in developing a maiden Digital Government Plan 2023 – 2027, as required under Section 10 of the Digital Government Act 2022.

“This Plan now provides a sequenced approach for streamlining, planning, coordinating, developing, and implementing digital services, digital infrastructure, digital skills, and all other aspects of digital government at the national, provincial and local levels of government administration,” Minister Masiu said this when presenting his Ministerial Statement.

He stressed that on the issue of critical digital infrastructure, the 7.7 magnitude earthquake that occurred on Sunday 11 September 2022 had an impact on operations.

“This natural disaster affected the operations of the DataCo Kumul Submarine Cable Network (KSCN) Express Link between Port Moresby and Madang, and the PPC-1 cable between Madang and Sydney,” Minister Masiu explained.

He said customers in Momase, Highlands and New Guinea Islands regions that are connected through Madang are and continue to be affected.

“The voice, internet and private link circuits have been routed via Port Moresby and prioritized over the limited satellite links and PNG DataCo is the custodian of much of our state owned critical digital infrastructure.

“I understand that my colleague, the Minister for State Enterprise and Public Investments, is carefully monitoring efforts by DataCo to get these cables up and running at full capacity again.

“Our telecommunications market is built on an open market model and learning from these experiences, my Ministry is currently reviewing the National ICT Act of 2009 to ensure competition is effectively strengthened at the wholesale level,” Mr Masiu further said.