On 23 March 2026, the Acting Minister for Information and Communications Technology announced the release of PNG’s Draft National Sovereign Digital Transformation and Artificial Intelligence Strategy for public consultation. The Department of ICT (DICT) published the strategy, which shifts PNG from fragmented ICT systems toward an integrated national framework built on Digital Government, Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), and responsible, sovereign AI.
The strategy positions AI not as a standalone technology but as a capability deployed on trusted national infrastructure, including sovereign hosting, Government Cloud, and secure national data environments. It outlines governance architecture, implementation pathways, and layered AI use cases while reinforcing accountability, security, public trust, and data sovereignty. The strategy is explicit that 2026 is a transition year during which frameworks, safeguards, and pilot systems will be established.
A companion Government Adoption Framework for AI (published February 2026) was released as a citizen guide, outlining governance, architecture, and responsible deployment standards across government.
Score relevance: Represents PNG’s first named government body mandate for AI governance at advisory/strategic level. Ethics and accountability principles included. No enforcement mechanism or binding training obligations yet exist. Scored: dim 10 = 1.