Himalayan News Service

Kathmandu, May 25

Information technology (IT) has emerged as a subject of enormous importance in today’s world of information and communication. The world has seen much advancement in this field. But our country has yet to work out a lot.

Whenever we talk about IT, we immediately start relating it with swiftness and speed. And IT professionals believe that these very factors are hindering the development of IT in Nepal, among others.

“Our major challenge in entering the international arena in the field of information and communication technology lies in swiftness, among others,” says Manish Kansal, senior vice president at Information Technology and Telecom International (ITNTI). “The world is fast growing in the field of information and communication. But we are just crawling about with lengthy paper works, ironically, in that field which has to do less with paper and much with computers.”

IT is developing as an industry in Nepal. In order to commercialise this industry and to draw foreign currency from it, it is important to penetrate the foreign markets. Though the government is all supportive to the promotion of IT market, professionals like Kansal claim that it is impossible to draw foreign money unless some reforms are made.

“Unless we convince the investors that we have clear cut policy and that their investment will not turn bad, it will be very hard for us to advance in this field,” Kansal said.

India and China, Nepal’s immediate neighbours, are emerging as world powers in the field of information technology. In this scenario, Nepal should also brace for the development for the sector. “Nepal can make a breakthrough in the world market of IT and earn foreign currency, provided we explore and utilise the talents within the country, which without doubt, the country is rich in,” said Kansal.

The government, on the other hand, does not seem to agree that lack of manpower is the factor to be counted. When asked about the lack of expertise, Mahesh Man Shrestha, secretary at the Ministry of Science and Technology said, “We do not have scores of technicians in our ministry or in the government bodies, but we have a IT promotion committee which includes highly professional computer experts from Computer Association Nepal (CAN), Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu University and other computer and IT giants.”

“This committee works out any major policy level decision,” speaking to The Himalayan Times, Shrestha said, adding, “So the lack of technical manpower in the ministry itself does not hinder our works.”

“The government is very serious about the development of IT in Nepal,” added Shrestha. “We have put our representative in the United States who will work as a facilitator for various IT related works such as drawing direct foreign investment (DFI) in this sector, selling software and hardware and so on. We are also preparing for sending our representatives in Japan and other European countries.”

Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) is the government authority for the formulation and implementation of IT policy in Nepal. The ministry works out most of the decisions and policies in coordination with Ministry of Information and Communication (MOIC). Whereas the press and media related faculties come under MOIC, purely technical areas are covered by MOST.

When asked about the lack of swiftness in making effective plans and implementing them, Hem Raj Paudel, joint-secretary and spokesperson at MOIC said, “We have to admit that we are not as fast as we should be, particularly for the development of that subject which has immense potentiality to bring foreign currency to the country.”