REMARKS: DSG Nayasi at the USAID Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership (DCCP) Pacific Subregional Workshop
Remarks for Deputy Secretary General Nayasi
USAID Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership (DCCP) Pacific
Subregional Workshop
Tuesday May 21 2024
Nadi, Fiji
• USAID Pacific Islands Mission Director, Ms. Zema Semunegus
• Excellencies
• Senior Officials from across the Blue Pacific Continent
• Colleagues and friends
Bula Vinaka to you all.
I thank you for the opportunity to provide a few reflections today as you gather to discuss digital connectivity and cybersecurity priorities and partnerships over the next few days.
Indeed, Information Connectivity and Technology remains a key priority for our region and an under-developed potential that we need to continually invest in to maximize its benefits for us.
The 2050 Strategy for the Blue Pacific Continent clearly outlines the need to enhance technology, across all sectors of our economy. Similarly, it highlights the need to ensure that our cyber domain is safe and secure for all Pacific peoples to enjoy in a culturally appropriate way.
Supporting the overarching strategic vision of the 2050 Strategy is the Lagatoi Declaration on Digital Transformation in the Pacific, which focusses on six key areas:
1. Digital Transformation
2. Digital Innovation and Entrepreneurship
3. Digital Infrastructure
4. Digital Security and Trust
5. Digital Skills Development, and
6. Regional Cooperation and Representation
As you will all know, to effectively progress development across these 6 priority areas - we will not be able to do it alone. Partnerships will become integral to our efforts as a region in this.
It is in opportunities such as regional working discussions as this, that we can truly build on our respective experiences to shape and refine our national approaches and solutions to all matters.
Indeed, this is one of the key highlights of regional governance – the opportunity it affords us to collectively learn and progress experiences and priorities, together.
In saying this, I also acknowledge that ICT is an area with under-developed regional governance structures in place to support a Pacific-led approach to our priorities. And I commend the members who have led the development of the Langatoi Declaration, including the ongoing discussions relating to its operationalization with the leadership of PNG.
I know each of you, as leaders in your countries in the field of technology and connectivity, will have some ideas on how we could best work together, to enhance digital connectivity across the region.
I encourage you to use this week to hone those ideas further, and to develop a strong outcomes document that we can use to inform a coherent regional approach on ICT development.
Aligned to a strengthened regional structure on ICT development, engagement and the advancement of related priorities, we will be better placed to influence partnerships to support our targeted priorities both at the regional and national level.
Relatedly, I am pleased to note that we are working with the Forum Chair, Cook Islands, to formalise a Pacific Partnership for Prosperity on Cybersecurity, an initiative that the Pacific Leaders endorsed last year in Rarotonga.
Through this partnership, which we will launch in the coming months, we will be asking partners, including this USAID Digital Connectivity and Cybersecurity Partnership Program, to commit to working together, coordinating their work, to working with and through Forum Member governments and regional institutions wherever possible and so on.
I am pleased that the DCCP program has indicated its interest in joining that partnership for prosperity. We will continue to keep you updated as that work progresses.
In closing, please allow me to acknowledge sincerely, the generous support of the USAID for convening this valuable opportunity to discuss, reflect and learn from each other.
I look forward to hearing the outcomes of your deliberations and wish you a successful meeting.
Vinaka vakalevu.
