IT park

With new technologies available like VSATs and Internet, people in remote villages having electricity can compete with people in developed cities like Kathmandu. Unfortunately, Nepal has failed to identify IT as an industry suitable for the country although it has already been 30 years since the introduction of the technology in the country.

Although the government is taking initiatives in the development of IT, the private sectors are still far ahead. In 1994, Mercantile Office Systems initiated Internet services in the country. However, it was only after three ISP’s (Internet Service Provider) were already functioning that the government announced ISP regulations in 1997.

With a view to provide quality facilities to IT professionals and companies under one roof, the government formed the idea to set up a Technology Park (also known as Physical Park) in 1996. The government constituted a high-level committee in December 1998 to work out a long-term plan on IT and to mobilise economic and technological resources for it. Three different committees began work on a comprehensive national IT policy and draft for a bill on cyber-laws. The government has designated the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) as the lead agency in developing IT in Nepal.

There is no doubt that Nepal can sell expert services abroad at a much cheaper rate. But, as soon as the Information Technology Park was conceptualised, the proposed Information Technology (IT) Park to be established in Banepa, 26 kilometers east of the capital city, started to suffer further delay in its completion due to the reduction in the budget set aside for it. The government had planned to complete the Park within two years. Similarly, the government also cut the budget allocated to the Ministry under the head of human resource development. According to the plan, the government was supposed to give 50 per cent subsidy in the training fee for highly skilled manpower, 80 per cent for skilled and 90 per cent for semi-skilled manpower.

It is obvious that such a cut in the budget would affect the construction of the IT Park, which has already been delayed by a few years. The government had allocated 300 million rupees for training 10,100 people during this fiscal year at three different levels, but it has already cut 170 million rupees from the amount. This cut would make it impossible for the government to train over ten thousand people.

The government had asked applications for 4500 seats of skilled and semi-skilled manpower training for this year and an overwhelming number of 50,000 responded to the call. This response shows that a large number of youth are aware of the prospect of IT but the reduction in the budget has lowered their hope as the subsidy announced is sure to diminish.

Such reductions in the budget would badly hurt the spirit of the government to produce desired manpower in the country and further slow down the pace of IT development.

At a time when efforts are on to bridge the ‘digital divide’ throughout the globe, the differences between the government officials and private sector IT entrepreneurs really set a drawback. The IT Policy-2000 has aimed to "place Nepal on the global map of information technology within the next five years". The IT Policy has also envisioned the private sector’s participation in the development and operation of such IT parks. The government, particularly MOST has also repeatedly expressed its commitment to it.

Banepa’s physical IT Park has a plan to have an optical fibre link within the capital. The park is aimed to be completed by 2002/2003. MOST has asked for a budget of at least 200 million rupees for the IT Park development. Independent analysts also observe that the government and private sectors should work together to bridge the digital divide in the country, instead of locking horns over the belated IT park construction.

But, when will the IT park be fully constructed? The question is still unanswerable. Until then, there will be no meaning in "launching marketing campaigns aggressively at an international level about Nepal’s IT products" and "encouraging foreign firms to invest their money and technology in Nepal’s IT Park". Furthermore, there will be no use in coordinating with universities in Nepal for research works and human resource development in the IT sector.

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