Papua New Guinea must build strong digital infrastructure and policy frameworks if it wants to play a meaningful role in the global artificial intelligence economy, Secretary for the Department of Information and Communications Technology, Steven Matainaho told ai summit last Friday.
Delivering the keynote address at the 2026 AI Summit hosted by the International Training Institute (ITI) last Friday, Mr. Matainaho said artificial intelligence is becoming the next major engine of economic transformation.
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“As electricity powered the industrial age and the internet powered the digital age, AI will power the next generation of economies,” he said.
He said the key question for Papua New Guinea is whether the country will simply consume artificial intelligence technologies developed elsewhere or build the digital foundations to actively participate in the AI economy.
Mr. Matainaho noted that while global digital transformation is accelerating, Papua New Guinea is still in the early stages of its digital growth.
“Recent estimates show the country has between 2.6 and 3 million internet users, representing about 25 to 30 percent internet penetration, while mobile penetration stands at about 75 to 80 percent with around six million SIM cards registered nationwide”.
With Papua New Guinea’s population estimated at 10.1 million, he said the figures show both progress and significant untapped potential.
“These numbers tell two stories at the same time. Our digital transformation journey is underway, but our digital growth ceiling is enormous,” he said.
According to Matainaho, the AI economy is built on three key foundations-connectivity, computing power, and data.
He said Papua New Guinea is strategically positioned in the Pacific region and could potentially become a regional digital hub as investments in subsea cables and digital infrastructure continue to expand.
“The government has already endorsed US$120 million in funding to establish three new subsea cable branching units linking the northern, southern and Bougainville regions of the country”.
“These investments improve redundancy, increase bandwidth capacity and reduce single points of failure in our international connectivity architecture,” he said.
However, he emphasized that connectivity alone would not create an AI economy.
“To unlock the value, countries must build digital public infrastructure that allows data services, digital identity and systems to interact securely at scale,” he said.
The Secretary also revealed that the government recently released Part One of its Government AI Adoption Policy Framework, which aims to guide the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence across public institutions.
“The policy framework is built around the concept of digital government combined with digital public infrastructure, accelerated by AI”.
He said the government is also moving to establish a national AI ministerial committee and taskforce following directives from Prime Minister James Marape.
The taskforce will bring together government agencies, private sector partners, academia and technical experts to guide AI adoption, governance, and regulatory alignment.
Mr. Matainaho also highlighted several early examples of AI use within government systems, including a partnership project that trained an AI model to help process visa applications for foreigners entering Papua New Guinea.
Another initiative within the Department of Personnel Management involves AI systems that assist with recruitment processes, including shortlisting candidates and generating offer letters and contracts.
He also pointed to AI models embedded in the government’s Service Wallet application, which uses biometric technology for identity verification.
Mr. Matainaho said artificial intelligence also has the potential to strengthen transparency and integrity in public administration by detecting anomalies in government systems.
“AI can assist with identifying duplicate beneficiaries, detecting ghost employees in payroll systems, and tracking procurement anomalies,” he said.
He stressed that successful AI systems depend on reliable and trusted data.
“AI models are only as reliable as the data they are trained on,” he said.
He stressed the importance of digital inclusion, noting that a significant portion of Papua New Guinea’s population still lacks access to formal financial services.
“Estimates suggest that 70 to 80 percent of citizens remain outside the formal financial system, presenting opportunities for AI-driven digital identity verification and secure digital payment systems to expand financial access”.
“If AI does not expand inclusion, it is not transformation. It is simply technology without a use case,” Matainaho said.
He said the country has a clear opportunity to build the infrastructure, data systems and digital trust frameworks necessary for artificial intelligence to operate responsibly.
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“The future digital economy of the Pacific should not only be connected through Papua New Guinea, but anchored in Papua New Guinea,” he said.