The Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) in partnership with the Department of Information, Communication and Technology (DICT) will be hosting the 2nd PNG Business Regulators Summit in Port Moresby next week starting on Tuesday 30th July.
The theme of the summit is “Interoperability; Connect and Co-Create” and aims to identify synergies amongst the government and the statutory regulatory agencies to take stock of reforms and progress being undertaken to achieve the National Government’s e-commerce agenda and digital transformation.
The IPA hosted the inaugural Regulators Summit back in 2019 from 19th – 20th September, under the Theme: ‘Efficient Regulations; Productive Economy’. The Summit was planned and executed on the back of post-APEC PNG 2018 domestication process focusing on improving ease of doing business climate through digitization and regulatory automation.
An outcome report on the key discussions and recommendations was produced in house and an NEC Paper was submitted through the Minister for Commerce and Industry. The key recommendations include stream- lining all regulatory agencies to adopt system automation (interoperability) to achieve government’s vision for digital transformation.
As such, the IPA Board has directed for the second Regulators’ Summit to take stock of how far they have come in terms of leveraging digital technology to streamline business regulations. The DICT will be the major stakeholder to partner with the IPA and co-host to drive government’s policy agenda.
As such, the discussions intend to focus on the following priority areas,
· Stock-take on government departments, agencies and industry regulatory bodies on some of the progress being made in adopting e-commerce and digital optimization in their operations and improved clientele service delivery,
· Promote dialogue and identify central depository point for regulatory agencies to converge and create synergies and work towards achieving interoperability in business processes, and
· Provide possible policy recommendations for government’s consideration and action.
Meanwhile, the collaboration with the Department of ICT is necessary given the fact that the department is driving the government’s Digital Transformation Agenda with the Minister for ICT to provide keynote address to outline government’s plan for e-commerce and regulatory convergence.
The two- day program will be delivered from 30th to 31st of July, with day 1 focusing on officiating and high-level statements from the Government Ministers followed by agenda setting and overview of the Regulators Summit topics, while day 2 will feature panel discussions at technical level for regulators and policy makers to have the deep dive into identifying issues and opportunities and outline recommendations for regulatory convergence and interoperability.