Shruti Mittal and Adarsh Ranjan
Pacific Island Countries (PICs) are at a pivotal moment in their digital journeys.[1] Across the region, there is growing recognition of digital transformation as a key driver of economic growth, resilience, and global connectivity. This momentum reached a milestone in 2023 when the information and communication technology (ICT) ministers of thirteen PICs signed the Lagatoi Declaration on Digital Transformation of the Pacific, recognizing the importance of a united front in achieving digital goals across six priority areas: digital transformation, innovation and entrepreneurship, digital security and trust, digital capacity building and skills development, and regional cooperation and representation.
Within this agenda, PICs must navigate complex structural restraints and a set of unique challenges, including small populations, limited resources, geographical remoteness, and susceptibility to disasters and external shocks, all of which significantly shape the digital transformation trajectory of the region. Understanding how these realities interact with digital ambitions would require granular, ground-level analysis of policy implementation and stakeholder perspectives.
In August 2025, Carnegie India’s scholars attended the Pacific Cyber Week, organized by the Partners in the Blue Pacific in Nadi, Fiji, and engaged with several government and non-government stakeholders across PICs. Their visit formed part of a knowledge-gathering exercise focused on the state of digital transformation in select islands and across the region as a whole. As part of this effort, they held closed-door meetings with government representatives from the ICT and Digital Transformation departments of Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands, and industry stakeholders engaged in cybersecurity and ICT infrastructure development in the Pacific. This article is a collation of the learnings and reflections that emerged from these closed-door interactions.
No comments:
Post a Comment