GOOGLE’S vice president of global network infrastructure and chairman of the Pacific Connect Initiative Brian Quigley is currently in the country.
He will be the guest speaker at this year’s Prime Minister’s International Business Awards (PMIBA), which gets underway tomorrow evening.
This was confirmed by Investment Fiji, organiser of the prestigious annual business event.
“He will speak on the transformative power of artificial intelligence, highlighting why he believes AI is a game-changer for the future,” Investment Fiji said in a statement.
The US tech giant is leading a US$1 billion initiative to connect the US mainland to Japan, part of which is its Pacific Connect Initiative that will connect Pacific island countries to two new undersea telecommunications cables Honomoana and Tabua, the latter slated to connect Fiji to Australia and to the US mainland.
In June this year, Google signed a partnership agreement with the Fiji National Provident Fund (FNPF) in the margins of the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) Inaugural Investor Forum in Singapore which will see the expansion of Google’s Pacific Connect initiative into Fiji.
A Government statement at the time stated that the two parties have plans to collaborate on the following key areas:
Pacific Connectivity:
Together with its global partners, Google is investing in the Pacific Connect initiative, a series of submarine cables that aim to expand the reach, resilience and reliability of the internet for countries around the Pacific.
Green ICT Capabilities in Fiji:
Google and FNPF will collaborate to expand the Pacific Connect initiative by establishing a green ICT park in Fiji, which will house the FinTel Pacific Connect Internet Exchange, termination of submarine cables connecting Japan, Australia, Chile and the United States and data center capacity.
Fostering a Data-Driven Ecosystem:
Google and FNPF affirm the value of data as a strategic asset for driving economic growth and innovation and commit to collaborate to support access to data center capabilities for Fijians and the citizens of other Pacific Island nations, working with the governments of these nations.
