Kathmandu, June 7: Minister for Communication and Information Technology Rekha Sharma stated that incumbent government has been aggressively working to put in place policy and, legal and structural arrangements for the development of information technology (IT).
At the Digital Nepal Conclave 2024 organized by ICT Foundation Nepal here today, Minister Sharma assured that important achievements were being made in the areas of formulation of ICT related bills and development of physical infrastructures.
Stating that the government declared the upcoming decade as the “Information Technology Decade’ from the new fiscal year 2024/25 in the newly unveiled budget, Sharma informed that government aimed to directly generate at least 500,000 jobs and a million of indirect jobs through the operation of IT work stations all over the country.
Acknowledging the legal hurdles for development of IT sector, the Minister shared that the government was considering legal and policy level reforms for the same.
“Cyber Security Centre has been established for the first time in the country. IT Policy has been endorsed. The government is making efforts to take forward the IT Bill at the earliest,” Minister Sharma, also Spokesperson of Government, said.
Furthermore, she said that the newly unveiled policies, programmes and budget included IT related issues after holding consultations with private sectors and opined that the goals related to IT could be obtained through the collaboration with the private sector.
The government and private sector should work hand in hand to achieve the Information Technology Decade’s goals.
Stating that the IT was considered to the basis for economic prosperity, she mentioned that the government considered increasing investment in this sector.
She clarified that optimization of IT had contributed in maintaining good-governance and prosperity. According to her, the Nepal Telecommunications Company had expanded high speed internet in 76 districts of the country. High speed internet has been installed and expanded in all districts except for Mugu, according to the Minister.
“The government is committed to uplift living standards of the general public and achieve socio-economic prosperity through the implementation of the Digital Nepal Framework’, the Minister reaffirmed.
In the one-day event, over 600 participants, national and international, comprising ICT experts, government representatives, entrepreneurs and academicians among others will discuss various dynamics of the digital capability for digitizing Nepal.
Moreover, the thematic experts will furnish recommendations to the concerned governmental bodies to chart a strategic roadmap to further digitize Nepal.
