Masiu announces completion of Digital Transformation Policy

Minister for Information and Communication Technology, Timothy Masiu has announced the completion of the draft Digital Transformation Policy for Papua New Guinea.

Masiu in a statement said as a Minister responsible for Information & Communication Technology, it is his core duty to continuously explore technology and harness its applications for the benefits of all people.

“I thank my acting Secretary Steven Matainaho and his team for this enabling policy framework for the ICT sector.

“The team has done a fantastic job in keeping the ICT momentum going and in publishing this document whose aim is to create a Government that works better and costs less. Our stated aim is to "create a government that puts people first, by serving its customers, empowering its employees, and fostering excellence.

“We seek to do this by creating a clear sense of mission; delegate authority and responsibility; develop budget-based outcomes; and measure our success by customer satisfaction.

“We have listened to stories about how governments around the world have recognized and successfully adopted and implemented digital government solutions to make their governments work better for them and we are excited about the opportunities to transform the Papua New Guinea Government into one that puts citizens first and Increasing efficiency and effectiveness of Government. Promoting and encouraging digital government will allow the Government Ministries that support and encourage e-Government services and applications to be seen as leaders and innovators in the country.

Mr Masiu said with this report they are taking a whole of government approach, looking at the impact of government on consumers, businesses, governments, and their partners and how they can work better, collaborate and innovate.

“By examining and transforming government we can reduce costs, increase our efficiency and make the Government work better, cost less, and put people first.

Throughout this process we have strived to:

  • Enable citizens to access high-quality digital government information and services anywhere, anytime, on any device in any of the national languages;
  • Unlock the power of government data to spur innovation across sectors and service areas;
  • increase the transparency Of decision-making processes by making information available and accessible to all citizens;
  • Reduce government bureaucracy and red tape and thereby enhance the quality of services in terms of time, content and accessibility.

“Digital Government makes routine, transactions-intensive tasks significantly cheaper, faster,and more convenient.

“Digital Government promotes efficiency, makes Government more responsive to Citizens by allowing all people gain access to services that they could not have before.”

The Minister added that with this policy, the Government has redefined the relationship between government and citizens, government to government; government to business it enables services to be created that can accomplish these goals.

Implementation of this policy and a strategy to follow will lead to improvements in efficiency, accountability, and performance within Government.

“We are aware that with these improvements we also need to focus on making sure the other development components such as skills, accountable institutions, and regulations are also taken into account.

“All these components are embedded into this policy document.

Digital Government will contribute to economic and social development by transforming Papua New Guinea into a competitive, innovative knowledge-based society by:

  • Increasing the quality of government service delivery;
  • Allowing for better use of government infrastructure and resources;
  • Improving governance;
  • Improving service delivery;
  • Increasing efficiency and effectiveness;
  • Enhancing the participation of private sector;
  • Increasing transparency, and accountability;
  • Reducing opportunities for corruption; and
  • Lowering costs.

The vision behind the digital transformation Of Government is to harness the potential Of ICT to bring government closer to the people through effective governance, improved service delivery, and enhanced socio-economic growth enabling Papua New Guinea to become a smart, networked, and well-informed society.

“This vision is one where all citizens are empowered and can interact and collaborate with the Government.

The digital transformation of Government will contribute to economic and social development by transforming Papua New Guinea into a competitive, innovative knowledge-based society.

It will:

  • Develop Digital Government programs and projects that impact on the lives of PNG citizenry;
  • Develop Benchmarks, standards, guidelines and framework of interoperability for Digital Government applications, systems, processes and organizations; and
  • Operate and maintain a National e-Government System which will enable seamless data collection, integration, shared services, and authentication.

Mr Masiu said this Policy is aligned with the PNG Vision 2050, the Long Term Development Strategy 2010-2030, Medium Term Development Plan 2018-2022, PNG Strategy for the Development of Statistics-2018-2027, ICT Policy of 2008, the UN's Sustainable Development Goals, GoPNG's National Intellectual Property Strategy, and the APEC 2018 Priorities and the ERA KONE statement.

The scope of this policy is broad in nature and generally reflective of the initially framework set out within the ICT Roadmap.

The existence of a cohesive and well-functioning institutional framework is essential for the attainment of all the objectives of this policy.

The Policy will ensure that the various institutions within the sector effectively play their interdependent roles with a view to putting customers first, getting back to basics, cutting bureaucratic red tape, empowering employees to get results, creating a clear sense of mission; helping communities solve their own problems, search for market (not administrative) solutions, measure success by customer satisfaction, and promote effective competition, and universal access to citizen services.

“As Minister responsible, I anticipate taking to Cabinet in the coming days for final approval.

“We look forward to the approval of this policy and to the digital transformation bill once it is complete.”