NZ govt ignoring ICT obligations to Niue, Cook Is. and Tokelau an injustice

For Pacific Guardians | by Lealaiauloto Aigaletaule’ale’a F. Tauafiafi

The announcement of a second sea cable, Hawaiki, connecting New Zealand and Australia to the United States come 2018 is to be applauded.

Hawaiki providing competition to the internet connectivity monopoly of the Southern Cross Cable, is expected to increase capacity turning data caps into a thing of the past, accompanied by cheaper prices. It provides New Zealand with a more robust, resilient and secure platform delivering business opportunities as well as essential services like e-governance, education, health, energy and financial inclusion.

However, behind the benefits, opportunities and extra capabilities New Zealanders will enjoy as they transition into the world of ‘Internet of Everything (IoE)’; is a whole group of New Zealanders that are being left behind – Kiwi citizens in the Realm of New Zealand countries Cook Islands, Niue, and Tokelau.

These New Zealanders have been left out the Hawaiki Cable roll-out. And the reason seems clear: the lack of action on promise made by the National government earlier this year.

On 4th February, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), Mr Murray McCully convened and signed, with Pacific leaders from the Cook Islands, Niue, Tokelau and French Polynesia, a Cooperation Arrangement for a Pacific International Connectivity Project.

From the outside, this appeared part of New Zealand actioning its NZ AID strategic plan 2015-2019 where nearly 60 per cent of its aid budget is targeted to the Pacific. And one of its key priorities is “Expand ICT connectivity‚ access‚ and use in the Pacific”. This follows New Zealand’s promise of aid delivery: “We invest Money, Knowledge, Skills. We deliver Sustainable development, Poverty reduction, Humanitarian support.”

After the Auckland meeting, MFAT issued a communiqué saying that governments had a shared vision of providing reliable, affordable and high-speed broadband.

“This will ensure that Pacific citizens and businesses, including those on remote islands, can benefit from planned initiatives such as telemedicine and digital education solutions,” it said.

And New Zealand would take on the responsibility to “facilitate the planning and development phases of the project.”

It is noteworthy that at the meeting, Hawaiki CEO Mr Remi Galasso tabled a number of solutions to connect the Pacific countries with its planned cable. Southern Cross also made a presentation.

However, the announcement this month by Hawaiki vendor TE SubCom that (i) it has already manufactured over 1,000kms of the 14,000km subsea cable system and (ii) it has added three new branching units to connect Tonga, Fiji and New Caledonia; on top of a previously-confirmed leg to American Samoa left Realm country members saddened.

With no mention of ‘branches’ for Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau in the Hawaiki announcements it was a clear signal that the New Zealand government has not given the ‘green light’ to connect the Pacific Realm members to Hawaiki.

Perhaps New Zealand is working on the obvious alternatives still on the table which would be to connect the three islands to the Southern Cross Cable via the proposed NZ$80m Tui-Samoa cable, which will link Apia to Fiji. Or to Hawaiki's cable via American Samoa.

But it’s the ‘time factor’ that is all-important. Making the lack of action by New Zealand with Hawaiki, potentially a disastrous one to the future development of these three members of the Realm.

It is not so much that they ‘will be’ connected in the future; but rather that the delay – with the Hawaiki construction set for completion mid-2018 – they would probably not be connected until somewhere post-2020; it means their ‘development’ would be severely stunted – perhaps impossible to catch-up, unless these islands start sending their future citizens to live in New Zealand and connect to the digital world from there.

New Zealand’s lack of action, whether by ignorance or just poor advise, has huge impacts on these nations.

The omission from Hawaiki and therefore high-speed connectivity to the rest of the world drills far deeper than just the price of the sea-cable infrastructure build. The price being paid is the cost of ‘time-delay’ that will stunt developmental progress by decades, perhaps longer for these countries.

This is because the delay in providing high-speed ICT technology – broadband, mobility and the cloud – are central to achieving the global goals for sustainable development under the auspices of the United Nations Agenda2030 that 195 countries signed up to in September 2015. The UN has admitted that the spread of ICT and global interconnectedness is key to realizing the potential for accelerated human progress at the planetary level.

“ICTs offer an incredible platform for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Every goal [there are 17]—from ending poverty and halting climate change to fighting injustice and inequality—can be positively impacted by ICT,” the UN’s Broadband Commission’s State of Broadband 2016 report stated.

It makes ICT connectivity one of the ‘basics of life’ for any country in this, the digital era, because only through high-speed connectivity will they be able to improve and reach developmental parity under the Agenda2030 framework, the world’s development agenda.

Already the future impacts of the Hawaiki omission for the three Realm members is already being felt through current developments in the region.

“A 20 per cent increase in IT investment equates to 1 per cent increase in GDP”, Huawei the Chinese telecommunication giant told Pacific countries at the Pacific Islands Telecommunications Association (PITA) Forum in Tahiti, in April 2016.

Huawei used the forum to present its strategy to help Pacific countries make use of the digital economy by working with local telecommunications providers, governments, and businesses to enable connectivity through subsea cables, 4G networks, datacentres, and the deployment of smart devices.

Essentially, Huawei’s message was a promise: that with more reliable and higher-speed internet connectivity, islands in the remote Pacific area will be able to take part in the digital economy, improve their socio-economic status, help mitigate natural disasters and climate change responses, develop digitalized health and education services, introduce ecommerce, and boost tourism.

To get all those benefits, the first ‘must-have’ for any country is high-speed internet connectivity.

And that is the point – the longer the delay in connecting the Realm countries, the further behind they fall in terms of development and associated complexity that comes with the exponential advancements in technology and its related applications plus new innovations.

As Cook Islands minister Mark Brown told media at the 4th February meeting in New Zealand, “Broadband and mobile phone penetration in the Cook Islands, [with a population of 10,900] was very high. But the cost and lag associated with satellite communications mean there’s a limit to what people could use broadband for.

“It is stifling business, particularly in the finance sector. The latency and the cost means things [like video gaming] doesn't really take place over here.”

Mr Brown also echoed the sentiments of the other two Realm members, that they would contribute to financing the project.

“We could look at equity stakeholders who may want to invest in the cable and we have the ability to borrow through our financiers such as the Asian Development Bank,” said Mr Brown.

“Looking to the future, it is inevitable that we need to invest in cable.”

While Tokelau, at its bilateral talks with New Zealand in March this year, confirmed it would use funds from its Trust Fund to lay a sea cable connecting its three atolls of Atafu, Fakaofo and Nukunonu estimated to cost NZ$17million.

But even with that contribution, New Zealand’s lack of progress on the Hawaiki opportunity is damning, as without it, Tokelau would not be able to access the internet.

It is this lack of focus, urgency, relevant advise or for whatever reason, New Zealand’s lack of action has the potential to penalize developmental progress in its Realm members.

The seemingly lack of urgency or priority New Zealand tags to connecting Realm countries is embarrassingly magnified by the urgency and priority other Pacific nations are according ICT.

FIJI IS NOT WAITING

Fiji is prioritizing high-speed connectivity for its citizens.

Just last week, the Fiji government announced it would connect its citizens on Vanua Levu to the Southern Cross Cable. A move that is estimated to cost NZ$10million.

Acting Prime Minister and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told media “We want to get Vanua Levu connected.

“Why are we doing this when 65 per cent of Fiji's total population lives on Viti Levu?

“Because we want the people of Vanua Levu to also have access to be connected or to be able to participate in the economic opportunities that will arise from being connected to technology.”

This approach will reap social as well as economic benefit. As Huawei revealed, ‘a 20 per cent investment in IT reaps a 1 per cent increase in GDP’.

AT THE GLOBAL LEVEL

The Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development released its 2016 State of Broadband last month.

“ICTs offer an incredible platform for achieving the SDGs. Every goal—from ending poverty and halting climate change to fighting injustice and inequality—can be positively impacted by ICT,” the report outlined.

It pointed to the critical role of universal connectivity as a powerful platform to deliver essential services like e-governance, education, health, energy and financial inclusion and ensure that no-one is left behind.

“As a direct result of three fundamental ICT forces—mobility, broadband and the cloud—a new service economy is emerging. Value chains are being reshaped, business models are becoming digitalized, distance is being overcome and, increasingly, people can share goods and services instead of buying and owning them.

“A large body of economic evidence has amassed for the role of affordable and effective broadband connectivity as a vital enabler of economic growth, social inclusion and environmental protection.”

At the 4th February Cooperation Arrangement for a Pacific International Connectivity Project signing, New Zealand took on the responsibility to “facilitate the planning and development phases of the project.”

The lack of urgency and priority by New Zealand will not just penalize developmental progress for New Zealand citizens on Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau for generations to come; it also highlights the seeming lack of interest by the National government on New Zealand’s constitutional obligations and special ties to these members of the New Zealand Realm.

INFORMATION

HAWAIKI

Hawaiki will be approximately 14,000 kilometres in length and cost A$452 million to complete. It is scheduled for a mid-2018 completion.

The three fibre-pair system will offer a design capacity of 30 terabits per second, using 100 wavelengths with 100 Gbps speeds.

In comparison, the existing Southern Cross Cable System is currently expanding its lit capacity to 12.8 Tbps. It is also planning a new route that would take the total capacity to 60 Tbps by 2020.

GLOBAL ICT STATUS

Internet connectivity is one of the most important drivers of economic growth and opportunity according to the UN’s Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development.

In early 2015, the global Internet passed a critical threshold of three billion Internet users. By the end of 2016, that will increase to almost 3.5 billion.

But 3.9 billion people are still offline, many of whom are disproportionately poor, rural, old and female. Much more effort is needed to ensure that the benefits of the Internet spread to the remaining 3.9 billion people without Internet access.

Countries where offline populations are concentrated are surprisingly few, with only three (India, China and Indonesia) accounting for 45% of the total global offline population in 2013.

A total of six countries accounted for 55% of the total offline population (adding in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nigeria).

The World Bank points out that many of these offline populations share common characteristics – they are predominantly rural, low-educated, with lower incomes, and a large number are women and girls (World Bank WDR, 201612).

Among the 3.9 billion people who are not online, many people may be unaware of the Internet’s potential, or cannot use it because they lack the necessary skills or because there is little or no useful content in their native language, on top of facing other barriers to Internet access, including unreliable power supplies and/or sparse network coverage.

Even once progress is achieved in improving connectivity, discrepancies in access to and use of different services are likely to come to the forefront. It is vital to improve the availability and awareness of Internet content in languages that are not well-represented online.

All in all, digital transformation is proceeding rapidly in many different sectors, including the digital economy, education and government services, among others, with far-reaching consequences for both national development and international approaches to development.

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