New Revised IT Policy in Nepal after 9 years

The Information Technology Policy is being revised after nine years, with the vision to bring Nepal on the global map and at par with international standards. The Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) is looking to bring about an IT revolution by creating a strong change in policies in the sector to bring social and economic growth and development.

“It is very challenging to implement the policies but revising it is the first step towards that,” said Ramhari Aryal, secretary at the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The new revised policies emphasises on outsourcing as its principle base, “outsourcing in Nepal has been studied and it has been found to be more cost-effective and cheaper than in India,” said Manohar Bhattarai, vice-president HLICT. “The sector needs to be overlooked by government to make it practical and making IT a medium for employment via knowledge based industries, and make it the base to disseminate information extensively.” The policies are based on three major grounds; outsourcing which is a five to six year phenomenon and deals with areas connected to IT enabled services; business outsources, remote maintenance and other concerned e-services. “We can target other countries like America for outsourcing due to the time difference which is an added advantage to us which can maximize work efficiency at day time while it is night out there,” he added.

The policy also emphasizes on the usage of IT for e-governance, and agencies that deal with health, education and businesses which can function with IT related strategic plans, and help increase the domestic consumption making practically all activities transparent. While the final base for policies deals with Intellectual Property rights, e-trade, e-commerce, VOIP, security and data protection, wireless networks, broadband data network and free and open source software. “We initially need to develop our standards,” he added.