Cybersecurity critical to digital resilience in Guyana – PM Phillips

– Assures that Govt will develop enabling environment to encourage use of ICT

Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d), the Honourable Mark Phillips said that the Government recognises that digital resilience is pivotal to sustained economic and social development in the rapid expansion of information technology and the digital network transformation era. 

The Senior Government Official made these remarks during the opening ceremony of the National Cyber Risk Assessment (NCRA) workshop which is being facilitated by the United Kingdom at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre (ACCC) in Liliendaal.

“Our Government remains committed to developing the required infrastructure and providing an enabling environment to promote the use of ICTs across Guyana in keeping with the drive to enhance global digitisation and to eliminate the digital divide.”

The Prime Minister added that technological advancements can lead to vulnerability and cyber threats that can potentially endanger life.

In this regard, he stated that: “Cybersecurity is key to securing our digital assets. To achieve this, we [the Government] will continue to make and to support investments that provide opportunities for all Guyanese, especially organisations that make up our Critical National Infrastructure (CNI). This will ensure that relevant skills are attained to safely access and leverage ICTs.”

He also emphasised that Guyana must be capable of capitalising on the economic and social opportunities of digitalisation in a secure way while simultaneously protecting national security and public values.

“It is our aim to develop a robust cybersecurity posture that will not only enable the protection of Guyana’s people, digital assets and digital reputation but also improve our country’s cyber resilience, while fostering a culture of good online behaviour.”

Additionally, Prime Minister Phillips expressed gratitude to the Government of the United Kingdom for the initiative which strengthen cyber resilience via the protection of CNI assets from Cyber-attacks.

“The Government of Guyana welcomes the National Cyber Risk Assessment (NCRA) initiative as it will foster our current agenda to use ICTs to catalyse the development in our Critical National Infrastructure organisations.”

The British High Commissioner to Guyana, Her Excellency Jane Miller OBE; Director of the National Intelligence and Security Agency, Colonel Omar Khan; Director of the National Data Management Authority (NDMA), Mr Christopher Deen along with representatives from several security agencies were also at the event.