The Minister for Information and Communications Technology, Hon. Timothy Masiu, and the Minister for State Enterprise, Hon. William Duma, signs MoU for DICT and DataCo partnership in Digital Transformation.
This formal agreement between DICT and DataCo ensures that both entities will operate with respective mandate, and collaborate in achieving a digital government for Papua New Guinea.
Hon. Timothy Masiu emphasized the historic nature of the event, describing it as the commencement of an exciting journey toward a brighter digital landscape for the country.
“The MoU reflects a shared vision between DICT and PNG DataCo, recognizing their important roles in steering PNG towards a more advanced digital future,” Minister Masiu stated.
DICT, as the lead ICT agency for digital government delivery, is dedicated to coordinating and driving the digitalization of government services.
The goal is to ensure that the benefits of the technology reach every province in the nation. In parallel, PNG DataCo is acknowledged as the government’s designated custodian of critical digital infrastructure.
The MOU emphasize the mutual understanding that collaboration is key to progress in the digital space. Together, DICT and PNG DataCo aim to create an environment that not only strengthens the delivery of digital government services but also safeguards the nation’s digital landscape from emerging threats and harnesses the potential of cloud technologies.
Hon. Masiu expressed his hope that this collaboration would serve as a model for public-private partnership and cooperation between government entities.
Hon. William Duma highlighted the importance of this partnership, emphasizing that it would lead to several benefits, including access to a modern state-of-the-art infrastructure, lower costs and shorter timing for DICT to roll out its transformation programs.
“I am glad that DICT has reviewed the investments in and the state-of-the-art network, Infrastructure that DataCo has built and is now entering into this partnership where DICT can utilize this physical infrastructure to build and manage the Government Digital Network and systems on the DataCo infrastructure within its mandate without duplicating modern infrastructure,” Minister Duma stated.
“We are proud, as Government entities, that we can foster this relationship today to work towards achieving the policy objectives for the ICT sector to achieve effectiveness in the whole of government.”
As the Government through DICT moves closer to achieving a Digital Government, this collaboration adds value to the agenda, and paves way for similar agreements with other sectors, promoting partnerships that coincide with the government’s policy aims to improve the country thus the lives of its citizens.