Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Communications Manoa Kamikamica says Google is collaborating with key stakeholders including FINTEL and the Fiji National Provident Fund.
In his Ministerial Statement, Kamikamica said these partnerships will strengthen Fiji and FINTEL’s telecommunications hub status and provide the much-needed reliable and resilient connectivity between the people of the Pacific and the rest of the world.
Kamikamica said the Government believes that Fiji’s institutional investors such as FNPF, FHL, and BSP Life may have an opportunity to invest in the Tabua Cable – Which would be an excellent opportunity for Fiji.
“Google will lay the ‘Tabua cable’ which will connect the U.S., Australia and Fiji… Google will lay a second subsea cable dubbed the ‘Homomoana cable’ connecting the United States to French Polynesia and onward to Australia.”
“There is also potential to eventually link Fiji to Japan, Chile and South America,” he said.
He also highlighted that Google plans an interlinking subsea cable connecting Fiji and French Polynesia and said the interlinking subsea cable will create a ring between Australia, Fiji and French Polynesia.
Kamikamica said this will make truly the tech hub of the Pacific and continue the Government’s desire to create benefits for all our Pacific countries.
“This ring will include pre-positioned branching units that will allow other Pacific Island Countries and territories of Oceania to take advantage of the reliability, diversity and resilience resulting from the initiative.”
“U.S. President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced their support of the Google Pacific Connect initiative, last month providing funding for some of the branching units which will allow for potential future submarine cable connections to other Pacific Island Countries,” Kamikamica added.
The Government has also acknowledged the resilient infrastructure is critical to development advancement and prioritised supporting initiatives as this.
