(TCSI): Australia's Cyber Cooperation Program is supporting governments in the Pacific to maximise opportunities offered by the digital age.

Solomon Islands ICT and telecommunications sectors will be at the forefront of any desired digital transformation and had government representatives at a recent workshop held by the program.

Partnering with the e-Governance Academy of Estonia and the Australian Strategic Policy Institute the project worked with Fiji, Tonga, Samoa, Vanuatu, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, and Kiribati to develop a baseline assessment of existing e-Governance capabilities and required resources to achieve each country's desired digital transformation.

The final project workshop was held in Canberra on 1-3 October 2019 to share key findings and observations of the baseline assessment and to discuss some common issues to all Pacific states, including single access digital platform, national digital ID and security by design. 

Officials from each country provided an update of work completed to date and their plans for the future. The workshop also provided a unique opportunity for Pacific government officials working on e-governance meet fellow colleagues from across the region to develop a Pacific community of practice, and attend DTA's Digital Summit 2019 which showcased Australian best practice in e-government solutions.

Founded in 2002, the e-Governance Academy (eGA) is a non-profit think tank and consultancy organisation: a joint initiative of the Government of Estonia, Open Society Institute (OSI) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). To date, eGA has cooperated with more than 200 organisations and trained more than 5,500 officials in 130 countries and regions. 

ASPI is an independent, non-partisan think tank that produces expert and timely advice for Australia's strategic and defence leaders. Its International Cyber Policy Centre was established in 2013 to conduct innovative research, bring government and non-government organisations together and support regional capacity building at the nexus of public policy, cyber security and emerging technologies.