‘Cyber law bill to be tabled soon’

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KATHMANDU, Dec 21 – The government has made commitment to table the bill of an act made to provide for the matters relating to electronic transactions, popularly known as cyber law, in the coming winter session of the parliament.

State Minister for Science and Technology, Bhakta Bhadur Balayar said today that the government is committed to table the bill of the act made to provide for the matters relating to electronic transaction in the coming session of the parliament.

State Minister Balayar was speaking at a workshop organized by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) to discuss the draft of the act here today.

He said that the government has made efforts to make the draft more comprehensive by involving the private sector in its formulation.

"The government wants to make the act well-defined and comprehensive. Hence, we are holding a public consultation today," said State Minister Balayar.

He also expressed the view that the development of information technology (IT) would help resolve the problem of unemployment and poverty.

Speaking on the occasion, secretary at the MoST, Mahesh Man Shrestha said the act is imperative to promote, facilitate and regulate an act relating to information technology and the government is making efforts to enact the act as soon as possible.

He also said that the implementation of such an act would also control cyber crimes to a greater extent, as the technology is fast moving and laws cannot catch up with them. But the government would make necessary amendment to the governing laws and acts, he added.

"It is highly necessary to make such act simple, fair and precise. Therefore, the draft of the act is being discussed by experts and professionals and I hope today’s deliberations would contribute to making the act more comprehensive and appropriate," said Shrestha.

Speaking at the inaugural session of the workshop, Rameshananda Vaidya, Member of National Planning Commission (NPC), underlined that IT should contribute to the enhancement of the living standard of the rural populace.

Citing examples from Andhrapradesh, Pondicherry, Madhyapradesh and Karnataka states of India, he said, if we can emulate the ongoing IT projects there, it would greatly help the farmers in the rural areas. In Karnataka, IT is used to update and keep record of land.

He also said that IT could help in good governance as it can be used in expressing public grievances and there is a need to develop software that can be used even by the illiterate segment of the population.

He also said that the government has made poverty reduction prime agenda of the Tenth Five-Year Plan and IT can be used to reduce poverty.

Lochan Lal Amatya, President of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) emphasized on making the act more comprehensive rather than heavily concentrate on the electronic commerce only.

Since there are many laws related to the various aspects of information and communication technology (ICT), other existing laws too need amendment to be compatible with the present one, said Amatya.

He also suggested that other concerned authorities should handle cyber crimes, in order to make it effective.

Secretary at the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, Udaya Nepali Shrestha and Joint secretary at the MoST also spoke on the occasion.

The day-long workshop is being participated in by above 40 professionals, experts and concerned government officials.

‘Implement EMS’

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LALITPUR, Dec 21 - Experts and participants gathered in a seminar here on Friday have emphasised the need for implementing Environment Management System (EMS) in cottage and small-scale industries. They also underlined the necessity of carrying out massive awareness programmes, and sought government assistance in order to facilitate the industries with the new environmental management system.

P L Singh, Minister of Population and Environment, highlighting the importance of EMS, said that the cottage and small industries should be developed as qualitative industries on par with international standard. "To achieve this target, small and cottage industries must adopt EMS," he said.

The Minister also expressed his satisfaction over the popularity of EMS, which is now being used widely in the major industrial areas of the country, whereas in the beginning, only 8 industries of Kathmandu valley had implemented the programme.

He also assured the entrepreneurs on behalf of the government that it is always ready to extend the necessary cooperation to industries regarding EMS.

Michael Malinovski, Technical Advisor to the Ministry of Population and Environment, said that the EMS system would help the industries reduce production cost and increase productivity.

Basudev Giri, President of Federation of Nepalese Cottage and Small Industries (FNCSI), said that most of the cottage and small-scale industries are on the verge of collapse due to the unchecked entry of low quality and cheap goods from the northern and southern borders of Nepal.

According to an estimate, cottage and small-scale industries contribute more than 65 per cent of the total export from Nepal. The EMS programme so far has already been applied in more than 30 industries of the country.

The one day seminar entitled "EMS Awareness Seminar for Export Based Small Industries" was organised by FNCSI in association with IEM, ESPS and DANIDA.

New version of Internet developed

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KATHMANDU, Dec 21 – Experts have said that in keeping with the rapidly growing use of Internet, the fastest means of global communications, and its nature, which requires upgrading, Internet Portal (IP) version 6 has been developed.

The current version of the currently used Internet is 4, which is in use since 1975 and almost no change has been made to it.

Purushottam G Ranjitkar, System Developer, Ericssion Telebit, Denmark, making presentation on Ipv6: The Next Generation Internet, said that running out of address space, ballooning broad gateway portal (BGP) database and router memory exhaustion, quality maintenance and privacy have driven to the development of the new version.

However, IPv6 is not an attack on IPv4 rather an evolution of it. Since IPv4 does not support native security, users are being apprehensive of it and there is growing need of security. IPv6 system is less costly than IPv4 and the automatic configuration of the new generation Internet is another advantage, said Ranjitkar.

He also said that there is a challenge of coexistence with the older version of the Internet and it could take up to 20 years to make the existing Internet portal fully compatible with the newer version.

The new version has 2128 the size of address while the existing version of the Internet has 231. IPv6 has authentication header and encapsulated security payload and its router is faster than its predecessor, IP mobility, he said, defining the benefits of the new version of the Internet.

The new version has no problem in getting new forwarding addresses at new attachment to the Internet and voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) and real time two-way multi-media application requires an-always-on system, which is not possible with the IPv4, he further said.

He also said that Ericssion is the first company to develop the new system and Japan is the first country to make use of the newer version of the Internet.

The programme was organized by the computer Association of Nepal (CAN) here today.

CAAN calls for bids on TIA cargo complex

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KATHMANDU, Dec 21 – The Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN) on Friday called for tenders in order to transfer the management of the newly-built air cargo complex at the Tribhuwan International Airport (TIA).

The invitation for bids was published in the government-run daily, The Rising Nepal, on Friday.

The invitation caught many by surprise because Modini Prasad Sharma, Director General at CAAN, had informed on Thursday that the tender-call would be published next week, but was published hurriedly a day after his announcement.

The 15-point notice says that CAAN intends to develop, operate and manage the air cargo complex with private sector participation under the lease agreement.

The bids will be competitive and international companies, joint ventures or consortiums with national firm(s) would be eligible to apply.

Among other specialties specified, the bidders must have an annual turnover of at least US $ 30 million for the last three years. The proposal must be delivered within 3 months and 5 days of the first publication of the notice.

More importantly, as the notice states, the decision of CAAN to accept or reject the bidder’s tender shall be final. However, the procedures and criteria of accepting or rejecting the bids are not mentioned in the notice.

Officials concerned at CAAN did not wish to comment on the notice. However, highly placed sources at CAAN informed that the invitation for bids came earlier than expected because the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation, in the light of the pressure being exerted by the private sector, was eager to hand over the management from the government’s Department of Customs to the private sector.

The well-equipped air cargo complex was built under the TIA improvement project with government participation and loan assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The complex is facilitated with 7,700 square metres of storage area along with a two storeyed 2,500 square metres area of the administrative office. Cold storage, parking, fork-lift system, and the facility for vehicles to enter inside the complex are other features of the building.

Meanwhile, Customs Officials at the TIA said that the Department of Customs will continue the operation of the new complex until a new party comes after the process of tender.