KATHMANDU: ICT Foundation Nepal has organised ‘Digital Nepal Conclave 2023’ in collaboration with Huawei in Kathmandu.
The two-day conclave is being held under the slogan ‘Fostering Digitally Saksham Nepal’ emphasising Nepal’s capabilities for digital transformation and the necessary policies and their implementation.
Addressing the 'Huawei MNC Digital Nepal Conclave 2023' today, Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal shared that the government's attention has been focused to pass acts and laws related to information technology, including the cyber security policy.
"The government is effortful to conclude the process of passing the required laws and policies including the bill related to information and communication technology (ICT), cyber security policy and startup policy, e-governance and e-commerce acts as soon as possible and bring them into implementation," he mentioned.
PM Dahal emphasized the need for making public service delivery effective, easy and smooth by taking information and communication technology to the access of the people.
He further said he has directed the concerned bodies to pay special attention to the implementation of policies, rules and laws related to this as soon as possible.
The government will take the initiative in making the roadmap of Digital Nepal worthy making it better and timely by revising Digital Nepal Framework, the prime minister shared.
He added that ICT has high importance in the goals set by the government to achieve prosperity through social justice and good governance by building a self-reliant economy.
He stated that the government has stressed the development of infrastructure required for Digital Nepal and mentioned that necessary initiatives have been taken to uplift the lifestyle of the people of remote areas.
"The government has aimed at reducing digital divide and stressed the digital economy," he viewed, adding the country has not been able to make development as per the expectation due to Nepal's geographical condition, lack of resources and capable and skilled human resources and some policy-level complexities.
PM Dahal mentioned, "Though our expectation and thinking are as fast as 'artificial intelligence', resources, structures and working style are not according to it. It is necessary to make the country developed towards digital capability by paying special attention towards it."
The government in the budget has made arrangement of using technology invented in home though it is 20% expensive, the Prime Minister said, adding he was aware of the brain drain of human resources in the ICT sector due to a lack of jobs and opportunities in the country.
One per cent of the total budget for the coming fiscal year has been allocated for the invention startup and innovation sector, he added.
PM Dahal asserted that the technologies that were developed at different stages of social change had been playing a decisive role in transforming human society into an advanced one. "It is necessary to leverage ICT to deliver on development and to bring about changes in the country."
According to him, the unprecedented development in the field of ICT had influenced all sides of society at present. The prime minister opined that IT had determined our behaviour, social ties, production system, knowledge and political intelligence and had controlled them in some sense. Therefore, the right usage of ICT is important to attain the goals of development and prosperity, good governance and social justice and social transformation, he said.
Underscoring innovation, development and right usage of the ICT, the Head of the Government said, "Acknowledging this fact deeply, the government has emphasized the implementation of the concept of Digital Nepal.
To make the public service delivery prompt and swift and to provide hassle-free services to the public, he also shared that he took the lead to digitise essential services like printing of passports, issuance of national identity cards and other documents as he assumed the leadership of the government.
He informed that Social Networking Procedure was revised for the public offices to ensure easy access of the public to public services and information.
"The government has taken necessary steps for permanent solutions to put an end to concerns related to cyber security and other risks that lurk in the government data centres and serves."
He argued that until public service delivery was delivered digitally switching from 'manually' as in the present, good governance will barely be realised
"The incumbent government's efforts are centred on further developing relationship between government and public and ensuring transparency in public service delivery as well as to ensure everyone's access to public services."
Stating that digital technology was important for achieving transparency, accountability and good governance, he spoke of the need to systematically optimise information technology to make the government's role more effective in accordance with the public's expectations in the sector such as education, health, employment and social awareness.
Participants in the two-day conference include ICT experts from South Korea, Japan, Singapore, India and Bangladesh among others. Prior to this, such event 'Digital Dialouge' had earlier been organized in all other six provinces, it was shared.
Besides the Digital Nepal Conclave 2023, Huawei is set to organise Mobile Nepal Congress (MNC) by equipping its pavilion with cutting-edge technologies and solutions that can benefit enterprises, telecom, and ICT companies. Huawei has set GUIDE as the theme that stands for Gigaverse Initiative, Ultra-automation Speed Up, Intelligent Computing & Network, service, Differentiated Expectation on Demand, and Environmental, Social, and Governance for MNC.
Various national and international companies have cooperated closely to organise the conclave to be held at The Soaltee Kathmandu.
READ ALSO:
Published Date: June 23, 2023, 12:00 am
Post Comment
E-Magazine
Click Here To Read Full Issue
RELATED B360 National
