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A Digital Leap: Papua New Guinea's Ambitious Journey To A Digital Government
Scott Waide, RNZ Pacific correspondent in PNG
In a country where access to government services has long been defined by long lines, cumbersome paperwork, and costly travel, the Department of Information Communications and Technology (DICT) has been making quiet strides towards a wholesale digitisation of government services.
It's a powerful revolution, seen only in pieces, and not fully understood.
The vision for the digital government is a transformation that aims to make life simpler, faster, and fairer for its citizens.
For years, the phrase "digital government" seemed like a distant dream. But since 2023, the DICT has been laying the groundwork with a strategic and deliberate approach.
DICT secretary Steven Matainaho says it's a national project with a clear vision: to create a "state in a phone" where citizens can access essential services from anywhere, just with the tap of a screen.
"To get to that vision, there's a whole lot of work that needs to be done. For systems to operate in an integrated manner, all our government systems, first of all, we have to talk about system and data hosting infrastructure. That's cloud infrastructure," he said.
A new digital foundation
The first and most crucial step has been to build the infrastructure. Since 2023, the government has been pushing agencies to migrate to a shared government cloud.
This isn't just about modernising a few departments; it's a massive, whole-of-government uplift.
By the end of 2024, nearly 90 percent of government agencies had been onboarded, standardising everything from websites to email domains.
This move is designed to break down the silos that have traditionally kept agencies from communicating, ensuring systems can finally talk to each other.
"The government builds roads, and businesses and citizens use that piece of infrastructure. Digital Public Infrastructure is the same," Matainaho explained.
This foundational work is supported by a robust legal and policy framework.
The Digital Government Act 2022 and the Digital Government Plan 2023-2027 provide the clear rules needed for this digital transformation.
These policies address three critical pillars:
- Digital infrastructure: Ensuring a secure and reliable hosting and connectivity environment.
- Data governance: Establishing clear standards for how citizens' data is collected, stored, and shared.
- Cybersecurity: Protecting government systems and citizen information from a growing number of cyber threats.
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