Secretary Repeats Digitisation Call

Secretary for the Department of ICT, Steven Matainaho, reiterated his call for a whole-of-government approach to digitisation at a Departmental Head Meeting in Port Moresby on Friday.

The meeting was convened by the Secretary for Prime Minister and NEC Ambassador, Ivan Pomaleu.

Pomaleu relayed the Prime Minister’s call for all heads to step up and for:

  • 2019-2022 Reports to be submitted by COB on 16th August 2022;
  • 5 year plans for each sector to be put forward and ensure all plans have measurable indicators and set targets.

Secretary Matainaho contributed to the discussion, at which he highlighted that Section 48, 28, and 29 of the Digital Government Act 2022 now calls for:

  • All data collected by public bodies to now be collected electronically (at the first point of collection).
  • Standards to be developed and enforced on data collection, storage and sharing.
  • All data to be stored on the private government cloud within a 'central repository.

Secretary Matainaho highlighted that should the Act be effectively implemented, PNG should no longer have the discussion of “lack of data for decision making”.

He further called for the Medium-Term Development Plan 2023 - 2027 to feature prominently on the digital agenda.

For the ICT sector, the Department will be submitting its report as per instructions, and it will also be sharing it publicly this week for all stakeholders to see how far the Department has come.

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