Policy talk on digital economy can achieve positive outcome

POLICY talk on the digital economy will achieve tangible outcomes only after the required infrastructure is in place, says PNG Apec Business Advisory Council (Abac) member Wayne Golding.
He was giving a brief of the relevant points for Papua New Guinea that were realised at the Digital Innovation Forum hosted by Abc PNG and Taiwan last month.
“We need to get our infrastructure in place so that we can participate in a global world, which is now under what is termed as the fifth industrial revolution,” Golding said. “To do that is basically to provide infrastructure which is enabling for our people to be more involved in digitisation.
“Developing economies like Papua New Guinea can do a quantum leap forward on technology, because we do not have the legacies of the other economies.
“What that means is that we don’t have carryovers from old technology dragging us back.
“We can do the leap forward and there are countries out there that are willing to help us.
“For this we need policy shifts, fiscal management and allocation for the investment of infrastructure over the next five years to help us do that.”
Abac chair David Toua said it was promising that Government had shown commitment to make this a priority.