Budgeting for Digitalizing Nepal

The second episode of the Digital Samvad 2.0 program was held on Saturday dated 2072/02/22 on the topic of “Budgeting for Digitalizing Nepal”. The dialogue was held in the presence of Former Minister Mr. Ganesh Shah along with key resource persons, Economic Adviser of the Ministry of Finance Dr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha; Joint Secretary, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Mr.Anil Kumar Dutt; Chairman of ICT Development Committee of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Mr. Mangesh Lal Shrestha; Chairman of CAN Federation, Mr. Nawaraj Kunwar; Chairman of Nepal Internet Service Providers Association, Mr. Sudhir Parajuli and Management Consultant, Ms. Sumana Shrestha.

Speaking on the occasion, the experts drew the attention of the government that there is no lack of programs in the IT sector in Nepal but the lack of budget, coordination and focus is playing a vital role in it. Experts complained that the government has not been able to allocate the required budget for various programs to build a digital Nepal.

The second episode of the program ‘Budgeting for Digitizing Nepal’ under Digital Samvad 2.0, which was conducted through the Zoom platform, had the direct participation of 135 people. The program was indirectly broadcasted live from the Facebook pages of 4 different online media including Living with ICT.

The program was attended by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Education, the Government of Nepal, advisors of other ministries, and distinguished representatives. Similarly, representatives of the department, authority, and local government (level) were also present in the dialogue along with the Managing Director of Telecom, Senior Director of Urban Development Planning Commission, former Presidents of CAN Federation, representatives of ISPAN, and Internet Service Providers, domain champions, and stakeholders also had direct participation in the program.

Former Minister Mr. Ganesh Shah clarified that the Digital Nepal Framework was brought as a game-changing project but no budget was allocated accordingly. He stressed the need to make the Internet and Digital Foundation a priority of the government.

Mr. Santosh Neupane, Editor of ICT Samachar, presented the budget programs brought by the government in the field of information technology in the last year. He pointed out that many programs have been repeated in the budget and there are still many implementation aspects.

According to Dr. Prakash Kumar Shrestha, the information and communication technology sector should not be left out for the development of the country. He said that it was still necessary to make the government services digital and the government is working on it gradually.

In response to “How much have you been able to improve living standards by using technology?” Shrestha said that it was necessary to focus on persuasively using technology. Stating that the development of technology can help reduce the trade deficit of the country, he said that it is necessary to promote the production including software.

Anil Kumar Dutt, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, said that this year’s budget was positive and welcomed by all. He also informed about the drafting of cybersecurity policy through the program.

Suggesting that it is necessary to coordinate with the private sector to move the digital economy forward, Mr. Mangesh Lal Shrestha said that there is a need for a knowledge-based economy by promoting digital startups as well. He stressed the need for a digital economy to achieve the 2030 vision of a one million dollar economy taken by the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry.

CAN Federation President Nawaraj Kunwar said that a separate ministry of IT was needed to develop the technology. Stating that the new programs brought by the government are due to Kovid 19, he complained that it is necessary to keep the software and hardware in the service along with the internet but the government has not been able to look into it.

At present, 46 percent tax is levied on various types of internet. Stating that the state did not understand in which areas the tax would be levied, Mr. Sudhir Parajuli said, “We have said many times on the internet that we have reduced taxes a lot and the minister had assured us but the budget did not address it.”.

Advising to focus on the use of necessary data, accurate data, and new technology if one wants to leap from the digital sector, management consultant, Sumana Shrestha said that the people are still not properly informed about the smart city brought by the government. She also drew the government’s attention to the fact that women’s participation in the digital sector is very low.

What are the challenges facing the government in the IT sector? In response to the question, Joint Secretary Anil Kumar Dutt informed that there were some problems in coordination. He also clarified that various programs could not be completed on time due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also said that there is a problem with documentation from the private sector partners but due to the training being conducted by the Public Procurement Monitoring Office, there is a possibility of some ease in the documentation.

Many domain champions were also present at the event. Speaking on the occasion, the Managing Director of Nepal Telecom, Dilli Adhikari, suggested that digitization should take place in all eight sectors of Digital Nepal. Mr. Binod Dhakal, former Chairman of CAN, complained that there is no conducive environment for new companies and startups to enter the market unless the Procurement Act is changed. Mr. Hemant Baral also drew the attention of the government to the fact that the Disaster Recovery Center established in Hetauda could not be implemented and stressed the need to operate the Mobile Data Center.

In the program, Dr. Subash Pyakurel had suggested to the government about the budget for the ICT sector. He also said that the government has not paid attention to the digitization of health even in the case of COVID-19.

After a three-hour discussion, experts concluded that the government has included various IT-related programs in the budget for the past few years, but the government has not been able to implement these programs properly. They suggested that the country should adopt more IT by introducing more new programs in the forthcoming budget.

The ICT sector will be crucial for GDP growth. For years, smart city and startup funds have been included in the budget from the government, but there is no implementation in this. The government should also focus on making Nepal’s data clear by data centralization and integration. The National ID Card is also very much needed in Nepal and its security and protection are equally important. The implementation side would have been stronger if the ministry had coordinated with the local bodies for the implementation of the budget.

The private sector in Nepal is at the forefront of ICT, so the necessary policies and environment for domestic and FDI should be created. Along with connectivity issues, the government should focus on content and digital literacy, as well as industry empowerment, including knowledge empowerment, to encourage new start-ups and create a more conducive environment.

The government needs to pay attention to e-commerce which is becoming very popular in the world market. For this, emphasis should be laid on promoting and investing in the international market by focusing on software, emerging technology, AI, and knowledge-based economy in Nepal. The government needs to increase the budget in these areas.

Prepared from the second episode of the Digital Dialogue 2.0 program on “Budgeting for Digitalizing Nepal”, this report covers all the documents prepared before the event, the activities in the main event as well as the highlights after the event.The concept of the program, the outline of the program, the invitation sent to attend the program are presented in the first section of the report. The second section of the report contains a summary of the program, slides of presentations, banners and glimpses of the main program, some glimpses of live broadcast pages, questions and suggestions from the participants as well as the main highlights of the program.

The third section contains links and some glimpses of the coverage of various online media and magazines for the second episode of the Digital Dialogue 2.0 program whilst the main points from the discussion and the article is written in the fourth section of the report. Relevant sources of research and ideas were taken from various mediums for conducting this program are noted in the fifth section of this report. Readers are invited to learn about the entire program from this report, which is divided into five sections.