Acting Minister for Information and Communications Technology Peter Tsiamalili Jr. has reaffirmed Papua New Guinea’s resolve to champion a safer, more inclusive digital future for the Pacific, calling the region not just neighbours but “a family of nations, bound by ancestry, culture and history.”
Addressing the Pacific ICT Ministers Dialogue in Suva, Fiji on 8 August, Tsiamalili said PNG’s digital journey should be seen as both a milestone for the country and an opportunity for deeper regional collaboration. He urged Pacific governments to strengthen partnerships in infrastructure, cybersecurity and digital trust to secure the region’s place in the global digital economy.
Outlining PNG’s progress, he pointed to major advances in connectivity. Broadband penetration has nearly doubled, rising from 40 per cent in 2020 to almost 80 per cent in 2025, while 4G now reaches over 90 per cent of users nationwide. Building on these gains, the government has unveiled a new Spectrum Roadmap and set its sights on launching 5G services in major centres.
Tsiamalili also underscored reforms within government systems, noting that 90 per cent of state agencies are now running on the Government Cloud platform. This, he said, boosts efficiency and transparency. Plans are also in motion to establish a Tier III national data centre to provide secure, sovereign hosting for critical data.
On cybersecurity, the minister warned that PNG had faced growing threats in the past 18 months, including two large-scale ransomware attacks. To respond, the country has rolled out its Cybersecurity Policy (2021) and Strategy (2024), backed by the National Cyber Security Centre and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT).
He further announced PNG’s intention to join the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, saying the submission has been signed and is being fast-tracked for parliamentary approval under his leadership as Leader of Government Business.
“A connected Pacific must also be a secure Pacific,” Tsiamalili said. “Without digital trust, our citizens will be reluctant to use online services, businesses will hold back on innovation and governments will remain vulnerable to threats.”
He closed by calling on Pacific nations to pool resources, share expertise and build digital capacity together. “Let us strengthen the masts of our regional digital lagatoi with infrastructure and guide it with a compass of security, so we may arrive at our common destination: a digitally sovereign Pacific, rooted in our values and united in ambition.”
