New and emerging technologies and frontier technologies like Artificial Intelligence have the potential to bring the country back on track regarding the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals. This has been highlighted by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade, Co-operatives, Small and Medium Enterprises and Communications, Manoa Kamikamica while officiating the launching of the Workshop on Introducing the Convention on Cybercrime to Members of Parliament.

Kamikamica says potential benefits like an increase in poverty alleviation, climate action, increasing crop yields, medical breakthroughs, clean energy and providing seamless, transparent and inclusive government digital services.

He says Cyber threats are a global crisis and we are also seeing an increase in Cyber threats in Fiji.

He says to combat Cybercrime they have an enduring partner – the Council of Europe and as a country, they have focused on putting in place layers upon layers of bolstering our Cybersecurity resilience while they harness the opportunities of digital technologies.

The Deputy Prime Minister says the Legislature plays a pivotal role in ensuring a safe, secure and enabling Cyber landscape, as a legislature, the Cybercrime Act 2021 was passed and enacted. He says as a nation, our efforts have been multi-pronged in several ways. The Minister for Trade says this robust and adaptive law was a key outcome of their partnership with the Council of Europe as they prepare to take the necessary accession steps.

Kamikamica says as communicated in his last Ministerial Statement to Parliament, the Fiji Police Force and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution are the 24/7 Network Points of Contact for Fiji.

He also highlighted this will allow for prompt contact with their counterparts for assistance and support where data and electronic evidence are stored in servers outside of Fiji.

Kamikamica further says this will boost the local capabilities and capacities to respond to new and emerging threats that we see with the malicious use of artificial intelligence malware and ransomware, to name a few.

He believed we need to advocate for these simple Cyber hygiene practices for our people and communities.