Kathmandu, June 17

The International Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Conference-2018, being organised by the Federation of Computer Association Nepal (FCAN), kicked off in the Capital, today.

Being organised with the theme of ‘Sustainable development goals for smart society', the two-day conference intends to bring together local and foreign ICT stakeholders to discuss on issues including ICT infrastructure in Nepal and global perspectives, promoting digital economy, use of ICT in security and service and roadmap for ICT development in Nepal.

According to FCAN, the conference will be attended by hundreds of ICT enthusiasts and stakeholders including ICT experts from India, Bangladesh, China, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore and South Korea.

Though FCAN used to organise the International ICT Conference every year as part of FCAN's flagship event, CAN InfoTech, the event will be organised separately from this year, informed FCAN officials.

Speaking in the programme, Digambar Jha, chairman of Nepal Telecommunications Authority (NTA), said that the Authority has a lot more responsibility at present to further expand internet and IT telecommunication services, among other various ICT related issues.

“We are working on developing infrastructure for ICT services, applications, contents and to promote digital literacy for digitalisation of the nation,” Jha added.

The NTA has selected 1,500 schools across the country to promote digital education as a pilot project, he added.

Jha also informed that NTA plans to have its own communications satellite in the near future and it is in the phase of collecting expressions of interest from interested parties. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) has separated the slot and allocated frequency for Nepal, but we have yet to utilise the facility, he added.