THE fundamental shift in how digital technologies are embraced daily is the very reason that an open, secure, accessible, interoperable, and peaceful cyberspace is crucial.
These were the comments of Tupou’tuah Baravilala, director–general for Digital Government Transformation, Cybersecurity and Communications, while addressing attendees of the Pacific Fiber Conference at the Sheraton Fiji Golf Resort and Spa in Nadi last week.
“This has been a key priority for the Fijian Government in ensuring that we are in the right forums globally to shape these technologies,” Ms Baravilala said.
Ms Baravilala’s presentation touched on how digital technologies, when implemented correctly, had revolutionised the world in a very fundamental way.
“The ministry has a unique vantage point where we’re able to see or have visibility how the digital ecosystem works, from guaranteeing and enabling and conducive environment for the private sector, to access to meaningful connectivity, to digital transformation efforts, while at the same time ensuring that we have cybersecurity and data protection provisions in place, and that we have measures in place to combat cybercrime as we all know, which is transboundary in nature.”
Ms Baravilala said those were different but very important pieces of the cyber ecosystem puzzle.
“So take one puzzle piece that we’ve all spoken about, which is making sure that we have an enabling and business conducive ICT infrastructure landscape.
“Twenty-one years ago, only 1 billion people enjoyed access to the internet.
“Today, six billion people are now connected to the internet.
“Now that’s good news.
“It means that we’re doing good work in bridging the connectivity divide but it’s not great because we have 2.2 billion people who are still not connected and that’s the priority to ensure that all of our people have universal, but also meaningful connectivity.”
She said ensuring that members of the public had meaningful connectivity remained a key priority for the Government.
