Excerpt from The Diplomat
Even before the onset of COVID-19, the need for more robust digital infrastructure and internet connectivity across the Pacific Islands had become increasingly apparent. Though many countries and international organizations — Australia among them — had taken some steps to provide for these needs, demand was only amplified further by the onset of the pandemic.
Some have already argued that in response to the challenges posed by COVID-19, Australia should partner with the United States to “co-sponsor digital connectivity projects” across the Indo-Pacific in partnership with the private sector. However, it’s worth reflecting on exactly what Australia’s efforts here currently look like in the Pacific Islands specifically, given the region’s priority status within Canberra’s broader Indo-Pacific construct. Doing so reveals that there is clearly room for Australia to step up its efforts to enhance digital connectivity across the Pacific Islands commensurate with heightened demand. However, this approach will require doing more than simply responding to real or imagined Chinese designs on regional infrastructure, and instead getting ahead of growing demand and known strategic challenges.
Efforts to improve the region’s digital connectivity should form a central component of a wider agenda to support the region in a time of economic distress. While the region has largely been spared from the immediate health consequences of the pandemic, the economic fallout has been devastating – almost all Pacific Island nations registered a sizeable shrinkage in their economies in 2020, and the pandemic continues to deter efforts to restart lucrative tourism operations. In that sense, accelerating efforts to enhance the region’s overall digital coverage rate and quality of digital communications could assist regional countries not only in efforts to develop more robust health and governance capabilities, but to diversify their economies and generally raise living standards.
By improving digital connectivity and internet access in the region, the World Bank suggests that more than $5 billion may be contributed to the region’s GDP, with an additional $1 billion in government revenue and the establishment of close to 300,000 new jobs in the information and communications technology sector. Enhanced digital connectivity would also enable Pacific Islands states to more easily maintain regular diplomatic engagements with their counterparts abroad. Indeed, the travel challenges posed by the pandemic and notable drop-off in face-to-face engagements have only heightened the value of and need for more robust and reliable digital communications capabilities at a time when the Pacific Islands have received renewed geopolitical attention. In any case, digital commerce, diplomacy, governance, or health services can only be as effective or extensive as the underlying infrastructure, placing a particular premium on the development of reliable and secure mobile and wired internet connections.
