Information Communication Technology Development ...

http://dx.doi.org/10.18350/ipaid.2016.25.1.101

일반논문 ｢지역발전연구｣ 제25권 제1호 : 101~141

JRSD

Information Communication Technology Development in Nepal Sharma, Aashis National Information Technology Center

Kim, Yun Seon Handong Global University

This paper examines the Information Communication Technology (ICT) status of Nepal in comparison with the overall ICT status of the world. The main aim of the study is to analyze the current ICT development trend in Nepal and also find the gap in the sector of ICT between Nepal and different countries of the world. Roles of different sector in the development of ICT in Nepal is examined for the study. The overall ICT status of Nepal shows that the country is lagging behind other developed and developing countries in terms of ICT infrastructure and services. The digital divide can be distinctly identified in Nepal. The study is done on the basis of different data obtained about Nepal from different sources. When focusing on ICT development the main focus is done on the factors like network readiness index, e-government development index, role of ICT on GDP and other factors that could lead to the development of ICT. [Key Words: Nepal, Information Communication Technology, Digital Divide, Development, Network Readiness Index, E-government Development Index]

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｢지역발전연구｣ 제25권 제1호

Ⅰ. Introduction ICT (information and communications technology - or technologies) is a broad term that includes any simple or sophisticated communication device or application like radio, television, cellular phones, computer and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on used in producing distribution, processing and transforming information (Marcelle, 2000). ICT links to everything we are using in terms of technological advancements. ICT has been an integral and accepted part of many of our lives. ICT is called as the key of success for many field ranging from education to health and infrastructure to military. Whatever we use nowadays connects us to the world. ICT has been the bridge between us and the rest of the world. ICT not only means mobile and televisions but it includes the system in our day to day use like transportation means, banking, shopping and many more. ICT even is associated with constructions, entertainment, health, education, etc. in direct or indirect ways. Technological progress is a considerable driving force behind economic growth, citizen engagement and job creation for countries of all development levels (Hanna, 2010). Information and communication technologies (ICTs), in particular, are reshaping many aspects of the world’s economies, governments and societies. In developed countries, public officials, businesses and citizens are working together to harness the transformative power of ICTs to make services more efficient, catalyze economic development and strengthen social networks. ICT helps countries connect and control anything easily and efficiently. Globally now the strength of the countries are not just measured in the means of their military strength but also in their ICT advancement. Defining ICT as an integral part of development United Nations have also been actively promoting ICT for Development (ICT4D) as a means to bridge the digital divide (Steyn & Johanson, 2011). In this paper the authors will discuss the ICT status of a small South Asian nation Nepal. The analyzation of ICT status of Nepal is done by studying different

Information Communication Technology Development in Nepal 103

papers and reports published about Nepal. The study is also focused on comparison of Nepal with the other developed and developing countries in terms of ICT development. Every year United Nations publishes a report regarding the e-Government status of different countries around the world. This data was analyzed to compare Nepal in terms of e-government development among the countries in the Nepal. The data of Nepal is compared with the neighboring countries of Nepal and countries with similar social and economic status. Other than these data, the data from World Bank was also used to make comparisons regarding the economic data of different countries. Despite from these, the reports published by different agencies regarding the ICT status was also examined to make comparisons. The data produced by different government agencies regarding the ICT and its factors was also examined for the study to make proper conclusions. The analyzation of the overall ICT development around the globe is done in chapter 3 and overall ICT development of Nepal is analyzed in chapter 4. Chapter 5 is based on comparing and finding the gap within these developments. Suitable recommendations are also made for better ways to boost the ICT development in Nepal.

Ⅱ. Literature review The review of the literature is focused in the need for the ICT in the development and also different factors influencing the ICT of Nepal. A brief background of Nepal is also provided to better understand Nepal in terms of its basic information.

1. Role of ICT in overall development: Researchers argue that ICT has turned the world into an information-intensive society and it is considered as the nerve of growth that can tremendously

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transform the economic, political, cultural, and social conditions in many developing countries (Deliktas & Kok, 2003 and Hicks & Streeten, 1979). The growth in ICT has led to the overall development of many countries. Countries are now increasing their investment in the ICT sector. Developing countries are now spending more on the ICT infrastructure than the developed countries. Between 1993 and 2001 the cumulative annual growth rate of ICT spending in developing countries was 12 percent, while being 6 percent in developed countries (Qiang and Pitt, 2003). Worldwide ICT spending amounted to $1.8 trillion in 1997, 6% of the aggregate global GDP and 40% larger than it was in 1992. Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe experienced the fastest growing ICT investments with five year annual growth rates of 14.5%, 13.6% and 9.5% respectively between 1992 to 1997 (WITSA, 1998; WITSA, 2008). Many developing countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America also increased investment in their ICT infrastructure in response to social and business demands (Shirazi et al., 2010; Morawczynski and Ngwenyama, 2007; Bollou and Ngwenyama, 2008). International organizations such as the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), among others, have highlighted ICT as a potential tool for development in poor nations. There have been protests from some quarters, however, that poor nations should be utilizing their limited resources on basic amenities like building schools and making provision for basic health, electricity and clean water, rather than ICT infrastructure (Ngwenyama et al., 2006; Morawczynski and Ngwenyama, 2007). Unraveling the impact of ICT investments on human development has therefore been receiving attention among policy makers, ICT practitioners and governments (UNDP, 2003). Many researchers have now concluded that a country could highly benefit from their investments in the ICT sector. A research done on investments in ICT and its payoff in Malaysia showed that ICT investments are paying off in terms of economic development (Kuppusanmy and Santhapparay, 2005). Even for the developed countries ICT is playing a greater role in the economic growth. A study reveals that ICT is contributing to economic growth in the US and nine


other OECD countries (Colecchia and Schreyer, 2002).

2. Background of Nepal Nepal is a small country located in between two giant nations India and China. Nepal is bordered by India from the east, west and south whereas the northern border is shared with Tibet autonomous region of China. Nepal has a total population of about 27 million (Nepal Census, 2011). Nepal is one of the poorest country in the world with the per capita GNI $730 (“Nepal | Data”, 2014). The total area of Nepal is 147,181 sq. km which is 0.03% percent of the total land of earth and 0.3% of the total land of Asia (Nepal, 2016). Most of the population depend on agriculture, and the UN estimates that about 40% of Nepalese live in poverty. Foreign aid is vital to the economy, and Nepal is also heavily dependent on trade with neighboring India. Nepal mainly exports carpets, jute products, clothing, etc. to mainly India and other countries (“The World Factbook”, 2015). Nepal bears a trade deficit of more than 10% on average every year. The GDP growth rate for the year 2015 is projected to be 4.6 % (Asian Development Bank, 2014). Agriculture is the major source of economy for more than 70% of the population which accounts for about one third of the GDP (“The World Factbook”, 2015). Nepal has a scope of exploiting its hydropower potential as the country has an estimated feasible potential of 42,000 MW of electricity and very small portion has been used by the country (Nepal Electricity Authority, 2015). Nepal is the land of mountains with eight of top 10 highest mountains are situated in Nepal. Mount Everest is situated in Nepal and these mountains and the natural diversity of Nepal is the source for the tourism in Nepal. Nepal terrain is distributed into Himalayan region, hilly region and plain land called terai region. The geographic distribution and uneven terrain has also been one of the challenge for conducting development activities throughout the country in Nepal.

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3. Nepal Government initiatives for ICT development 1) ICT policy

ICT policy in Nepal has remained relatively restrictive and centralized. Limitations imposed during the country’s decade-long ‘‘People’s War,’’ instability at the highest levels of government, and endemic corruption have diminished the possibility of development (Shields, 2009). Policies on information and communication in Nepal date to the Radio Act of 2014 (1957), which established the need for radio transmitter licenses and designated the central government as the issuing authority. The development of modern ICT policy started with the Telecommunications Act of 2053 (1997) and the Telecommunication Regulation of 2054 (1997). But when it comes to the major policy on Information Technology, it was the Information Technology Policy of 2057 (2000). This policy aimed in private sector participation for the Information Technology development. The global trends of privatization and autonomous regulation advocated by the World Bank and other international agencies was followed by the policy in Nepal (Wallsten, 1999). This Information Technology policy was again revised in 2010. After a demand for the revised policy featuring the Information Communication Technology as a whole, the government of Nepal devised the Information Communication Policy 2072 (2015). This policy stresses in the need for a well-defines and consistent policy and regulatory framework for addressing converged regime of telecommunications, broadcasting and ICT (ICT Policy 2072). These policies as a whole regulate all the activities regarding the information communication technology in Nepal. 2) Rural Telecenter

The Internet can help the disadvantaged gain access to resources that otherwise would be inaccessible due to economic and geographic constraints. For commu-


nities with households that cannot afford technology, telecenters and community phone shops are providing access to these resources (Hafkin & Taggart, 2007). Developing countries such as Nepal struggle to keep up with 21st Century technology. While advances have made it possible for the average Nepali to access mobile phones, computers, and digital cameras, barriers continue to impede access. Like other governments (Huerta & Sandoval-Almazan, 2007) (Mokhtarian & Ravikumar, 2002), Nepal responded in 2004 with telecenters to push sustainable technology to its people. After the end of decade long civil war Nepal government created telecenters throughout Nepal. At the first phase there were approximately 80 telecenters. These telecenters were funded for two years by Nepali government and were initially appreciated well by the rural population. This attempt was successful in introducing 21st century technology but the two-year stoppage to funding was harsh. As a result, most of these telecenters failed “(Bhattarai, 2009b)”. The concept of these rural telecenters is to make the rural community use the ICT infrastructure for easy information access and enhanced communication capability which they can use for their own development. However it is still uncertain that whether this interaction between the rural telecenter and community it serves would be able to provide genuine benefits for the poor people (Harris, Jacquemin, Ponthagunta, Sah & Shrestha, 2003). Although due to the failures of telecenters currently there are 410 telecenters in 73 districts of Nepal (Nepalpost. gov.np, 2015). These telecenters are currently providing the services to rural community in the name of Postal Information Center. The success of these telecenters is sometimes questioned but they are still serving the rural community in many rural areas of Nepal. 3) E-government initiatives

Nepal government started many e-government initiatives to establish good governance. The implementation of the e-government initiatives was guided by the e-Government Master Plan (e-GMP). This e-government initiative was started

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with a mission statement as to “Improve the quality of people’s life without any discrimination, transcending regional and racial differences, and realize socioeconomic development by building a transparent government and providing value added quality services through ICT” (Korean IT Promotion Agency (KIPA, 2008). This master plan selected 8 projects as priority projects which were building groupware systems for government, government portal, national identification, e-education, communication network, enterprise architecture, PKI and integrated data center. The e-GMP guides the overall development of e-government in Nepal with projects focused in all the sectors like G2B, G2C, G2G and infrastructure (KIPA, 2008).

Ⅲ. Research Methodology The research is completely based on secondary data. A quantitative analysis is done from selected data available from different agencies and sources. Data from multiple sources have been brought together to make a proper analyzation and a conclusion is devised based on this. The comparison of ICT development status of Nepal is done based on three major areas. ICT infrastructure development level and availability, Government role on ICT promotion and Economic impact of ICT are used as the main basis of the analyzation. We have limited our data for the ICT infrastructure development to telecommunication and internet penetration factors. As internet and telecommunication is one of the biggest factor in ICT infrastructure, its development could greatly help identify the overall ICT infrastructure development status (Fagerberg & Srholec, 2008). Next we have analyzed the data regarding the government role on ICT promotion for which we have mainly focused on e-government development status. The government role on development of e-government could show the role of government towards the overall ICT development. The other area we have considered is the economic impact of ICT. The role of ICT in the economy of the country would also help to


identify and compare the ICT development level of the country. We have considered these three areas as our major areas of comparison but we have not limited our research in the ICT status of Nepal to these factors. We have tried to explain the all different sectors of ICT development in Nepal as well as about the major ICT developments in the world. We have used multiple data sources to analyze ICT development status in Nepal. For this we have used both national data published by Nepal government through different government agencies but our main comparison is based on data published by International Non-Governmental Organizations (INGO’s). We have used the internet penetration and mobile penetration data provided by World Bank. World Bank along with International Telecommunication Union (ITU) have created an open database storing available data regarding Internet and Mobile penetration for most of the countries in the world. We have selected the raw data for Nepal and the other countries to make comparisons. We have used the data for the latest possible year. We have also made average calculations to find the average among group of countries to make the comparisons. We have also used the data from World Bank regarding the export of goods and services according to their % in GDP. From this raw data we have calculated the overall role of ICT exports on GDP. This data is also provided openly by the World Bank. For the e-government development status we have used the e-government development index published by United Nations. The “United Nations E-Government Survey 2014: E-Government for the Future We Want” was launched in June 2014 and it assesses the e-government development status of 193 United Nations member states. It conducts surveys among government officials, academics, intergovernmental institutions, civil society organizations, the private sectors and citizens at large to analyze the e-government status of the countries. It uses different factors to identify two major indexes, the E-government Development Index (EGDI) and the E-participation Index. In our research we have used the former one to identify the e-government development status of the country. The EGDI is a measure of three important areas in e-government, namely: provision of

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online services, telecommunication connectivity and human capacity (United Nations, 2014).We have used this EGDI to identify the status of e-government in Nepal in comparison to other countries. The other major data source we have used is “The Global Information Technology Report 2015” published by World Economic Forum in partnership with Cornell University and INSEAD. The report identifies the Network Readiness Index (NRI) for 143 different countries. The networked readiness framework rests on six principles: “(1) a high-quality regulatory and business environment is critical in order to fully leverage ICTs and generate impact; (2) ICT readiness—as measured by ICT affordability, skills, and infrastructure—is a pre-condition to generating impact; (3) fully leveraging ICTs requires a society-wide effort: the government, the business sector, and the population at large each have a critical role to play; (4) ICT use should not be an end in itself. The impact that ICTs actually have on the economy and society is what ultimately matters; (5) the set of drivers— the environment, readiness, and usage—interact, coevolve, and reinforce each other to form a virtuous cycle; and (6) the networked readiness framework should provide clear policy guidance” (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2015). The NRI is subdivided into 10 different categories. We have used the data of Nepal to compare it with the world average and show how does Nepal differs with the world in all the different 10 categories of the NRI.

Ⅳ. ICT development status around the world Developed countries around the world are now focusing on technological advancement in all the field of life. Countries like South Korea, Singapore and USA are very ahead in the use of ICT. For some of the developed nations like South Korea ICT makes up for nearly 35% of Korea’s total GDP growth (Korea Information Society Development Institute, 2015) (“Korea, Rep. | Data”, 2014). This means that ICT not only can make your life easy but also can have a huge


impact on you economy. In developing countries ICT development have been rapid. The mobile penetration and internet penetration in these country is nearly 96% (International Telecommunication Union, 2015). This means everyone is using internet and mobile phones. This leads to development of the services to the citizens through the means of ICT. In countries like Singapore all the service offered by the government are offered by the means of ICT so that no citizens have to face any hassle obtaining these service (“Introduction to Singapore e-Government Programmes :: eGov”, 2013). In developed countries you could do everything seating at your home, may it be shopping or attending classes or even doing your financial transactions. ICT has changed all the traditional ways of doing things making it easier and efficient. The average speed of broadband internet in South Korea is about 23mbps which is much higher than that of other countries (Akamai Technologies Inc., 2015). The citizens of South Korea can access all the government service in one click portal services, can use high speed internet to access anything, can use e-commerce easily, can do transactions easily through online services and even produces their own hardware for ICT services, etc. These reasons have made them the leaders in these sectors. ICT has been able to change all the sectors along with the government. Many countries are now transforming to e-government. Countries like South Korea is good example of the current ICT status of a developed country. South Korea is considered as the leading country in terms of ICT. South Korea is ranked as the top country in terms of e-governance (United Nations, 2014). It is also ranked as nd

the 2

nation in terms of global ICT development index just after Denmark

(International Telecommunication Union, 2014). The reason South Korea is at this point is due to the development is the terms of ICT. One factor for this is the broadband Internet. Korea is said to have the fastest internet in the world. The proportion of households with Internet access in South Korea is 98 percent, the world’s highest and also the wireless broadband penetration rates stood at 105.3 percent (International Telecommunication Union, 2014). The world economy is now booming with the ICT products. Companies like

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Microsoft, apple, Samsung being in the list of top 25 companies around the world shows the influence of ICT related companies in the world economy (“The World’s Biggest Public Companies”, 2015). ICT is one of the significant factor in the GDP of the developed nations. Also for all other factors in the GDP ICT plays an indirect role. For example the use of ICT related products has helped gain more from agriculture related industries. The ICT sector have made a big leap from year 2005 to 2015. Year 2005 had about 400 Million internet users which is expected to grow to 3.2 Billion by the end of 2015 (International Telecommunication Union, 2015). This drastic change in internet users defines the development is use of ICT and related products. Internet is now being one of the main part of the ICT. Without internet we could not get connected to anything in this world. Now everything we define as ICT is internet. Connecting to internet in 2015 is not just for entertainment but it’s for everything we do in terms of ICT. The graph below shows the number of internet users per 100 citizens within year 2005 and 2015.
Number of individuals of using internet per 100 persons.

N ote: Adapted from http://w w w .itu.int/en/ITU-D /Statistics/D ocum ents/statistics/2015/ITU _Key_ 2005-2015_IC T_d ata.xls. C o pyright 2015 b y International Telecom m unication U nion.


We are now using ICT services in almost everything. Most of the people in the developed countries have mobile phones. This is the most common ICT service we are using. Internet is an important achievement of the ICT as it has now given many service to individuals. Using banking services we now use the ICT services as most of the banks worldwide now use ATM services. Even the banking systems used by banks are ICT services meaning that even we cash a check we use ICT services. Buying things online is also done using ICT. Almost everything now is now dependent on ICT to deliver more efficiently. But the development of ICT is not similar in all the countries throughout the world. Although developing countries has very high access to ICT service the condition of the developing and the Least Developed Countries is different. Along with the economical divide there is also the digital divide among the developed and developing countries (Chen & Wellman, 2004). Digital divide states the difference in the use of information communication technology in daily lives. The figure below shows the comparison of the people from different countries and continent based on the access of internet.
Percentage of individuals using the Internet 2015. Copyright 2015 by Intern International Telecommunication Union.

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As per the above figure there is huge difference in the ICT status among the developed, developing and least developing countries. In Africa, one in 5 people use the Internet today, compared to almost 2 in 5 people in Asia & Pacific, and 4 in 5 people in rest of the world (International Telecommunication Union, 2015). In the world where half the population is using internet access and ICT services through the smartest medium still the other half is not even getting access to the internet services. Some developing countries are also showing their pace in the development of ICT sector and are showing promising results in terms of overall development. Some of the developing country like Trinidad and Tobago are showing high development in terms of ICT. Their global ICT status ranking is even bigger and developed nations like Brazil and Jamaica (International Telecommunication Union, 2015). The development in the sector of ICT could result in the overall development of any country. If a country fails to pace up its ICT development along with the world then it would remain far behind in the any sort of development because now all form of development is related to ICT (Park, Choi, & Hong, 2015). ICT is a very dynamic. There are new technologies being discovered and tested every day. When internet was first introduced no one would have thought that people would be able to use more than 5mbps but it is now possible. Using just mobile phone was a big thing some 10 years back but now we use mobile phones to do shopping through mobile pay facilities. This only means that the ICT world is changing and it’s changing very fast. New technologies are coming up every day to make peoples life easier and convenient (Zysman, Murray, Feldman, Nielsen, & Kushida, 2011). Apart from the technical limitations for the development of ICT, there are problems of the digital divide. The world should work in removing the gap in digital services among the developed and developing countries. Although many countries are now working in removing this gap by helping other countries to adopt their technologies but this is not enough (Norris, 2001). Developing and


least developed countries should be encouraged to develop their ICT infrastructure and services such that they could match up with other countries. People throughout the world should be educated about the ICT services and its importance. The whole world should come together for the overall development of ICT throughout the world. ICT can lead to a better and equal world for all its people.

Ⅴ. ICT development in context of Nepal The overall ICT development of Nepal is not considered satisfactory as the country still lacks minimum ICT infrastructure throughout the country but the telecommunication sector as an exception is considered to have grown fast compared to other services. The telecom sector developed rapidly after 2005. It could be said as the only service which currently is in par with other developed and developing countries. As descried in the milestones of Nepal Telecom, the development of ICT in Nepal is said to be started establishment of Nepal Doorsanchar Company - a government owned entity established in early 1913 (Rathjens, Butman, & Vaidya, 1975). After a year after establishment it connected an open wire trunk link between Kathmandu and Raxaul (India). This development continued to the establishment of digital exchange system in 1980 which helped to expand the telecom services to the general public. The service was then extended to the rural areas with the help of JICA (Japan International Co-operation Agency). All these years the communication was through the microwave links. In the year 1995 the optical fiber was introduced for the communication means. After the introduction of the optical fire the development took a better speed and then a fiber link was established to India and Bangladesh. The GSM and CDMA service was then introduced in 2003 and 2005 respectively. This lead to access of mobile phones by many of the citizens. In the year 2007 3G network was introduced. Nepal was very fast to introduce 3G among the South Asian countries (Nepal

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Telecom, n.d.). The development is telecom sector was very fast although due to many obstacles. Due to the rapid development in the telecommunication sector many private companies started investing in the telecommunication business. The led to competition resulting to cheap services to the customers. Currently there are six national level telecommunication companies. Among the six two companies have a major market share. The government Telecommunication Company is also now privatized. Due to the development in the telecom companies, everyone in the urban area has a telecom connection. According to a study done by Nepal Telecommunication Authority the mobile penetration ratio for Nepal is 110.25% (shown in the table 4.1) (Nepal Telecommunications Authority, 2016). This means that every citizen in Nepal has a mobile connection. But this data does not provides the real picture as it is based on the number of SIM cards sold and active and many people tends to have two sim cards for themselves. The real penetration ratio stands somewhat below this level which is also a very impressive data. This shows the level of telecommunications development in the country. The table below shows the number of telephone users in Nepal according to the different Vendors and services. Mobile penetration in Nepal Fixed

M ob ile

O thers

Services O p erators

PSTN

W LL

G SM

CDM A

NDCL

668,229

122297

11743844

U TL

-

50,000

-

N cell

-

-

STM *

**2832

N SPTL SPTL O thers To tal

Total

LM S

G M PC S

1335662

-

-

13,870.032

-

476,274

-

526,274

13,075,450

-

-

-

13,075,450

-

-

-

155

-

2,987

2,984

-

-

368,164

-

371,148

-

1,361,099

-

-

-

1,361,697 1,742

**598 -

-

-

-

-

1,742

671659

175281

26180393

1335662

844593

1,742

846940

27516055

846335

29209330


Services

Subscriptio n (% )

Fixed

3.20

M ob ile

103.86

O thers (LM S, G M PC S)

3.19

Total

110.25

Pop ulation of N epal 26,494,504 (So urce: cbs.g ov.np ) N o te: Retrieved fro m N epal Teleco m m unication A utho rity M IS rep ort 2016. C opyrig ht 2016 b y N epal Telecom m unication A utho rity.

Information Technology (IT) development pace of Nepal is on rise currently. Nepal has been able to come up a far way from 1971 when the first computer was introduced in Nepal (Render, 1983). This computer was solely used for the calculation and analysis of the Census data. This started the formal development of the Information Technology in Nepal. Recently then after Nepal Government established a computer center for the management and operation of computers. This agency worked for the development and use of computer related services in government and private sector. This created a base for ICT development but it took long from this time to the age when ICT was used in all day to day activities. By 2000 more than 50% of the urban households had computers. But at these times most of the computers were not connected to the internet. The credit for the introduction of internet in Nepal should be given to a private company. A company named Merchantile Communications introduced internet to Nepal in 1994 partnership with the then Royal Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (RONAST) (Shakya, 2007).For the first year this was just started as an email service provider but from the second year it started to provide internet service through a 64Kbps leased link with the Singapore Telecom. As then there was no any regulations to start an ISP this company was not known to be ISP. But from 1997 when other companies applied to start ISP business the government started giving ISP license. As per the details in milestones of Nepal Telecom, Nepal Telecom (country’s only telecom company at that time) in 2000 also started providing internet services (Nepal Telecom, n.d.). The internet services was first

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limited to just some corporate houses, but it started getting more and more customers day by day. After the worldwide boom of the internet from around 2004 Nepal also saw a surge in internet users. But the big growth in Nepalese internet users started after the start of Facebook. Many citizens in urban area now are using Facebook and other social networking sites. This has changed the internet penetration in Nepal. There are many internet service providing companies providing dial-up to High Speed internet services.

Internet penetration in Nepal. Subscribers

Services

Total

NDCL

U TL

N C ELL

STPL

STM

ISPs

D ialup (PSTN + ISD N )

4253

-

-

-

-

5661

9975

W ireless M odem O ptical Fiber Ethernet

-

-

-

-

-

46490

45424

C ab le M odem

-

-

-

-

-

82962

79943

A D SL

160006

-

-

-

-

-

167363

G PRS, ED G E, W C D M A

6743542

-

4935515

100714

-

-

11682907

C D M A, 1X, EV D O

136,573

63058

-

-

-

-

199559

W iM AX

14345

-

-

-

-

-

14092

V sat b ased Internet

-

-

-

-

13

-

13

To tal

7058719

63058

4935515

100714 13

135113 12293132

Internet Penetratio n (% )

46.64

Po pulatio n o f N ep al 26,4949,504 (So urce: cb s.go v.np) N o te: Retrieved from N epal Telecom m unication Authority M IS report 2016. Copyright 2016 b y N epal Telecom m unication A utho rity.

After 2004 the internet penetration rate grew very fast. Currently as according to a data of 2015, the internet penetration rate is 46.64% (Nepal Telecommunications Authority, 2016). This shows that we have better internet access although this data is mainly covering urban areas which nowadays have high internet using population due to the 3G and GPRS service in mobile phones. If we could increase this penetration to the rural areas then we can easily develop the rural


areas along with the cities. Nepal Government has also been giving some focus on the ICT development. Telecommunication act was prepared in 1997 in aim to help the proper development of the telecommunication sector. This helped regulate all the telecommunication development work. This act then later was supported by the Telecommunication Policy 2004. The government has now been equipped with all necessary telecommunication equipment. The telecommunication development helped the central government to reach all its agencies in the remote hilly areas. Currently all the 75 districts of Nepal has been connected through landline as well as mobile phones. There are very less remote areas left where mobile connection could not be established. Along with the mobile networks all the districts are now connected with the internet connection either through 3G or through broadband ADSL. All the cities in Nepal are connected through optical fiber network. All the connections of Nepal are truncated to Indian Tier I Internet Service Providers like Tata and Airtel (“AS Rank: AS Ranking - CAIDA : http://as-rank.caida.org”, 2015). We are also working to get connection from China and Bangladesh as well to create redundancy. All the Internet Service Providers are connected to India through different location using optical Fiber. Major cities in Nepal have fiber to home connections facilities with an average speed of 1Mbps. All the other cable connections start with the minimum speed of 128Kbps. Also after the introduction of WiMAX technology, the major cities and highways are now connected through wireless internet. Due to the increase in number of internet users, the ISPs have now started using Cache servers to provide high speed internet. The cache servers of Google and YouTube is maintained by most of the leading ISPs. So that although you get 254Kbps speed for the other websites, you will get more than 1Mbps for the YouTube and Google. The government has not been able to prioritize the IT sector despite its development in Nepal. The government prepared the IT Policy 2000 to guide usage of Information Technology and internet. After the declaration of the IT Policy 2000 the door for the development of IT sector was open. The development of

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Information Technology formally started in 2002 after the establishment of National Information Technology Center (NITC). This agency was formed to promote information Technology use in the government agencies as well as the private agencies. One of the first thing this agency did was establishing a network within the government agencies. This project was performed with the funding of World Bank. In this project all the central government agencies were connected through optical fiber and were provided with high speed internet and intranet service. This resulted in increase in the number of computers in the government agencies and through internet the agencies were connected (E-Government Implementation Course Manual for IT Professional of Nepal Government, 2015). With the aim of providing better infrastructure and environment for private sector the government established an IT Park. But due to lack of co-ordination and legal provisions this IT Park has not been able to run properly. Recently the government have devised the IT Park Operation and Management Directives 2072 which has opened door for the private sector and the universities to use the infrastructure and services in the IT Park (Department of Information Technology, 2015). The IT development in Nepal government is guided by the e-Government Master Plan (e-GMP) developed by Korean Information Technology Promotion Agency (KIPA) in co-ordination with HLCIT. e-GMP prepared in 2006 was aimed in transforming all the government services to digital ways. This master plan covered different sector like e-Health, e-Education, e-Agriculture and etc. The master plan was aimed to complete in 2011 but due to some political hurdles different components of this plan is still to be implemented. As per the e-GMP Government Integrated Data Center (GIDC) was established in the year 2009 and was the grant project form Korean government to Government of Nepal. GIDC was built as a standard data center to provide infrastructure for all the government service. This data center is currently serving as the only data center for the government of Nepal. Also the need for Disaster Recovery Center (DRC) comes in once you have critical data at one place. Also as per the


e-GMP to have a DRC, Korean government again is building a Disaster Recovery Center as a grant project through KOICA. The construction of this DRC is started in Hetauda (a city in Nepal). This DRC will act as a replication of the current Data Center. NITC has been handling the GIDC and its services (E-Government Implementation Course Manual for IT Professional of Nepal Government, 2015). As per the e-GMP many projects have already been completed and are smoothly running. Nepal government has been able to devise the Government Enterprise Architecture (GEA). “GEA is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure reflecting the integration and standardization requirements of the company's operating model. The operating model is the desired state of business process integration and business process standardization for delivering goods and services to customers” (Government Enterprise Architecture guideline, 2013). GEA has been envisioned to deliver a common integrated interoperability platform or service delivery gateway for information exchange and host the national portal of Nepal that will act as the single window (one-stop-shop) for all government e-Services and electronic information of Nepal to be delivered to citizens (G2C), business (G2B) and government employees (G2E).Nepal Government has also prepared the Nepal Government Interoperability Framework also has been developed for the easy sharing of data among government agencies. All these have been done as per the e-GMP. Nepal government also has now developed a National Portal (Nepal.gov.np) to provide a one gateway solution for all of its services. This portal is currently acting as a source of information about all government agencies and government services. But later this will be transferred as a gateway to get all the government services. Nepal government also has developed some portals to provide one gateway solution for the citizens and businesses. Portals like liscenceportal.gov.np provides all the information related to obtaining a license related to any kind of business. The portal ncedportal.gov.np provides all information regarding their subject matter to the school teacher. Currently these portals aims in providing one way information, but will in future be developed to provide a gateway for two

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way communication between citizens and governments (E-Government Implementation Course Manual for IT Professional of Nepal Government, 2015). Many government services has now been transferred to the digital systems. Some successful example of e-Gov projects are e-tax, online company registration, e-procurement, electronic employee management system and Machine Readable Passport. Beyond these projects there are many small level e-Gov applications in local government being a huge success among the local citizens. Many government e-Gov projects are now ready to be implemented and are being piloted. The digital driving license, digital vehicle registration card, Public service recruitment management system and Land record information management systems are some of the big projects coming in very near future. The National ID project which was long awaited by many government agencies is also in the process of making and will start its implementation from the early 2017. Despite these developments in e-government sector Nepal still lies far below in the e-Gov development index. Nepal is ranked 165th with a score of 0.234 in the e-government development index (“UN E-Government Survey 2014”, 2014). Also the network readiness index of Nepal is very low. Nepal is ranked 118 out of 143 countries with a value of 3.2 out of 7 (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2015). These results shows that despite many projects Nepal still lies far below in terms of ICT development. Nepal currently has a huge potential to become an ICT outsourcing country. Currently there are many companies developing software for different international agencies and countries. Nepalese company were also involved in developing software for National Security Agency America. With very less support from the government these companies are doing very well. If the government helps in developing the necessary infrastructures these sort of ICT industry could lead the economy of the country. If proper measures are taken then the day is not far when Nepal will grow as a leading country in terms of ICT generated economy. A small timeline displaying the ICT growth in Nepal is represented below. This timeline illustrates the major events in the history of ICT development in Nepal.


ICT timeline of Nepal

Ⅵ. Comparative analysis of ICT development of Nepal When compared to developing countries Nepal is far behind many countries on different aspects of ICT development. When many developed countries are growing their economies due to large ICT investments and new ICT innovations, Nepal is still struggling to adopt the developed technologies. Developed countries are very far ahead in terms of ICT as compared to the developing countries and the least developed countries. This has resulted in the digital divide among these countries. As discussed in our methodology we will analyze the ICT development in Nepal based on ICT infrastructure development, government role on ICT development and economic Impact of ICT. The use of ICT in very nominal in Nepal. Although the telecommunication sector could be called as in par with the international standard. Nepal is currently having 3G connection and is soon going to launch the 4G connection. Currently 4G connection is being used in the developed countries around the world. Also the cost of the telecommunication is very less compared with other developed and developing countries which could be considered as a good aspect in terms of ICT development. The telecommunication penetration of Nepal is considered to be nearly 75 % which is also not very less compared to over 100% percent in the developed countries (International Telecommunication Union, 2015). Internet penetration in Nepal is just over 15.44% (Data.worldbank.org, 2015) which is

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very less as compared to that of the developed countries. Even this penetration is mainly focused on the urban population. Also the developed countries are now using broadband internet services with speed up to 50Mbps whereas Nepal connectivity are slow compared to this and the average internet speed of 135 Kbps (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2015).
Internet and Mobile penetration comparison

N ote: adapted from http://api.w orldb ank.org/v2/en/indicator/it.net.user.p2?dow nload form at= excel. C op yright 2015 by W orld Bank.

The above graph shows the mobile penetration and internet penetration of Nepal and its neighboring countries. The internet penetration rate and mobile penetration Nepal has very as compared to the world average. Also when compared to just the two neighboring country India and China although the mobile penetration is comparable the internet penetration is very low. But it is not the worst one as compared to Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. This even shows some better image of Nepal among its neighbors. The education sector in developing countries are making a very proper use of the ICT services to improve the education service. Countries have now developed virtual classrooms and distant learning facilities making the education system more efficient and easy. Also the classes are made interactive using different ICT


services like audio-video materials and other ICT mediums. Whereas in Nepal many school lacks internet and even computers. Thus majority of rural students lacks computer education and also know very less about other ICT services and infrastructures.
Comparison of different factors of Network Readiness index of Nepal and the world

N ote: adapted from http://w w w 3.w eforum .org/docs/W EF_Global_IT_Report_2015.pdf Copyright 2015 Econo m ic Forum

According to a report “The Global Information Technology Report 2015” Nepal is ranked 118 out of 143 countries with a value of 3.2 out of 7 in terms of network readiness. Its rank has improved from 123 and 126 in previous consecutive years. As per the study based on different 10 fields Nepal’s score is below the world average for the 9 different fields whereas in case of affordability Nepal has a very good score of 6.3 out of 7. Also Nepal is ranked 23 in terms of the affordability in terms of internet and network (World Economic Forum and INSEAD, 2015).

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Although all the citizens do not have the access to internet but the one who does is comparatively paying less money for the service. Nepal has been able to reduce the cost for the internet but it still needs to make it accessible, cheap and efficient to all the citizens. The ICT development is mainly focused in the urban sector. There is a big gap in the IT resource usage in the urban places compared to the rural areas. As the urban population only stands for 18.6 % of the total population the ICT development only in urban area (Cia.gov, 2015) is not enough to change the face of the whole nation. The government of Nepal is also far behind in the use of ICT. There are very less government agencies delivering its services by the use of ICT. Some services like Tax collection, company registration, driving license are using the ICT to deliver its service but still their services are not completely transformed to the e-Government model. Whereas in developed countries all the government services are provided through one window one click ICT services. Citizens can access almost all the government services online through the use of ICT in developed countries leading to less time consumption and hassle free service whereas in Nepal the services are still traditional leading to crowded government agencies and time consuming government services. Although government agencies in Nepal now have websites but they are just for information delivery and most of them do not provide two way communication. Also the government has developed many portals but also are limited to dispensing information. Nepal also lacks the National Identification Card System to keep track of all of its citizens. There is no smart card ID system for the citizens, although the Machine Readable Passport system keeps digital records of passport holding citizens all other citizens do not have a digital ID. The government is working in establishing the National Identification System but it will take time to include all the citizens into it. th

Nepal is ranked 165 in the e-Government development index (Unpan3.un.org, th

2015). The rank of Nepal has plummeted from 130 rank in 2003 to the current 165th place. Nepal Government has been running different projects to strength the


e-Government from 2003 but this development projects has not been able to uplift the rank of Nepal. Also Nepal government has not been able to follow the timeline provided by the e-government master plan. The e-Government master plan of Nepal government has a timeline to finish up different projects by 2012 but still till 2014 many projects are still in the development projects. Projects like National ID card, e-driving licenses, public key infrastructure, e-vehicle registration, e-land and etc. are still not implemented although the importance of these projects have been realized long time back. As shown in the graph below the e-government index of Nepal is very low compared to that of the world or different continents.

E-Government Development Index Comparison Table

N ote: ad ap ted from http://unpan3.un.org/egovkb/Portals/egovkb/D ocum ents/un/2014Survey/E-G o v_C om plete_Survey-2014.p df. C op yright 2014 U nited N atio ns

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Role of ICT exports in GDP

N ote: ad ap ted from http://api.w orldbank.org/v2/en/indicator/ne.exp.gnfs.zs?dow nlo adform at= excel. C opyrig ht 2015 W orld Bank

The government has not been able to provide adequate budget for the development of the ICT sector. Total ICT budget just comprises of $ 45,661 which is just 0.55% of the total budget of Nepal (Ministry of Finance, 2015). This budget is very less in compared to what is being invested by other countries. Whereas developed countries invest big amount for the ICT sector and even ICT has notable influence in the GDP of the country. Countries like South Korea invest 144,954 million won on the ICT sector which comprises around 3.9 % of the total budget which is very high percent when compared to that of Nepal (National Assembly Budget Office, 2015). Despite very low investment from the government sector ICT is making some notable contributions in the GDP of the country. The table above shows the role of ICT in the GDP and the uprising curve from 2008 to 4.5 in 2013 shows further more possibilities in the coming days. Apart from this the developed countries invest very high amount in the Research and the Development sector for the ICT to come up with new innovations whereas countries like Nepal has nearly zero investment in the R&D sector. This creates


huge difference in the innovations as well as the usage of ICT services.

Ⅶ. Recommendations and suggestions The study was focused to present a picture of ICT status in Nepal. The status of Nepal’s ICT development was also compared with different countries to analyze the position of Nepal in the world. The research was mainly focused on problem identification. Some common recommendations has been made to help identify a proper solution. As per the study Nepal needs to make bigger budget allocations for the ICT development in the country. Also some part of this budget should be also allocated for the research and development in the sector of ICT as done by different developed countries. This will help develop local technologies and promote the quality of human resource. As e-government services has been started to implement, its pace should be increased making these services accessible to bigger population. The development and usage of e-government services would also encourage the private sector to implement service delivery through ICT. Also the implementation of the National Identification Card project should be done at the earliest which will open the doors for other e-Gov services. Nepal direly needs some consolidated e-Payment gateway system to help promote e-business and e-commerce activities. ICT should be made accessible to the rural population with further enhancements and better managements of the projects like the rural telecenter projects. Private sector would also play a bigger role in development of the ICT sector. The government should promote local companies as well as try to attract FDI in the ICT sector to create more job opportunities. Promoting ICT based companies will help the government to attract foreign investments to the country. ICT literacy should be increased through promotion of ICT based courses from the primary level education all around the country. ICT human resource development should be a government priority and establishment of a technical university would be a better solution for this. The quality of education should also

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be raised helping the graduates to compete in the international arena as well as have vision for new technologies. The government also should promote ICT startups strategy which will help create more jobs and opportunities and also help the economy grow. ICT should be kept as high priority by the government and it should be converged with the sectors which are playing a bigger role in the economy. The convergence of ICT with these sectors would help the economy grow bigger and faster.

Ⅷ. Discussion and Future Study The paper highlights the gaps in the level of ICT development of Nepal. It emphasizes on different field where Nepal is lagging behind the world in the terms of ICT development. ICT in Nepal has been compared with the ICT status of the world in terms of ICT infrastructure in terms of Telecommunication, government role and initiation in ICT and the economic share and impact of ICT. The data available through different other studies have been used to make these comparisons. Nepal have also been compared with countries with similar GDP as Nepal. Also the paper emphasizes on the status of Nepal among its neighboring country. ICT is currently the major factor in the development of countries. The study indicates that Nepal is lagging behind in the overall development of ICT. Nepal’s status in ICT development is not comparable to the developed countries. Also among other developing countries, Nepal lies behind most of the countries. Nepal’s development status in terms of ICT infrastructure and ICT skills lies well below the world average. The results although found out that the cost of ICT in Nepal is comparatively low in compared to other countries in the world. Nepal is ranked 23 in the world in terms of the cost if internet. The role of government is also not very good in terms of budget allocation for the development of ICT. The percent of budget allocation by the Nepal Government in the sector of ICT whereas governments from developed countries make big budget


allocations just for the development of ICT. Also the e-government status of Nepal is very low showing the government’s inability to successfully implement e-government initiatives. Previous literatures has been studying the status in only one defined sector showing some similar results. But this paper is aimed in studying different aspects of the ICT development is comparison with other countries around the world. This paper aims to interrelate the combined effect of all these factors in the overall ICT development. The paper although has tried to cover as many resources as possible but due to lack of time and limited resources the study is not able to gather its own data for the study. The study is limited to data collected by other different international agencies. Also the paper is also not able to properly analyze the investment made by the private sector and INGO’s towards the development of ICT which could give more clear status of the current efforts being made and their results. The data produced by Nepal government is ambiguous in some aspects. The data from government sources and that from other agencies present a different situation. The government data repository is most of the time out of date and for the one with updated data source is tough to access. This have compelled us to use the data from the non-governmental organization. Although the use of data from organizations like World Bank and United Nations have provided an easy source of data, these data have their own limitations. Each of these data were collected worldwide for a different purpose of research. They were collected on a common framework for all countries around the world. Using these data for making analyzations for a specific country will surely not be able to create the perfect picture. Also development indexes help compare different countries in a same framework but these comparisons are limited to only those factors stated in framework and other common factors among a group of countries or individual countries cannot be properly analyzed. This creates limitation is making comparisons solely based on the indexes. The “The Global Information Technology Report 2015” by World Economic Forum itself has stated the limitations of its

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report due to the lack of required data for some of the countries. Similarly the World Bank also does not guarantee the accuracy of their data so using international reports and indexes for a precise study of one country has limitations regarding the accuracy and usefulness of data. Further study could be done by collecting more data in local level. The data from the rural areas could be collected for more precise results about ICT development status in the rural areas as well. More study could be done also in the impact of government efforts for the implementation of e-government services in the local level. ICT development prospects of the country is also related to the level of ICT education in the country. This research has not included ICT education as its main factor of analyzation and further research is needed on ICT development status of Nepal in terms of ICT education and skills. Further research on this area will more precisely give a better picture on the reasons for slow ICT development as well as the future prospects for ICT development.

Ⅸ. Conclusion Understanding the economic, social and regulatory aspect in emerging economies and their effects on the ICT management is essential matter (Roztocki and Weistroffer 2011b) .The paper presents the ICT status of Nepal. The paper shows different areas for the ICT development in Nepal. It analyzes the current status of Nepal in comparison with other developed and developing countries. From the research we could say that Nepal is lagging behind than other developed countries in terms of ICT infrastructure. Infrastructure is important in development of overall ICT sector and Nepal has poor ICT infrastructure level. Although Nepal has cheap prices for internet and telecommunication accessibility mainly for internet and other ICT resources is very poor. The government itself is also lagging behind in terms of ICT development. The country has been revising policies for better ICT implementation but the government is lagging behind in


implementing ICT in its service delivery. The government has not been able to implement important e-government projects like the National ID which have been blocking the development of other e-government services. The government’s sluggish pace in development of ICT also have been a discouragement for the private sector to make investments to this sector. The ICT development in Nepal is not directly connected to production sector. The limited role of ICT in GDP shows that ICT has just been used as service instead of using as tool for economic growth. With the developing countries more tending towards innovations and products related to ICT, Nepal should also focus on developing a technology driven GDP. More ICT driven productions and manufacturing means more opportunities for ICT development among the citizens and the same thing is applicable vice versa. Less development means more new opportunities for development. So Nepal being backward in ICT sector means that there are many new technologies which could be easily be implemented in Nepal. This provides an opportunity for different agencies to know the ICT trends in Nepal before making any investment decisions or plan. The paper also presented the aspect for the government to focus more on the ICT development. Government has to play an initiative role in ICT development as once the government initiates its involvement in ICT sector the private sector will itself be encouraged for their role in ICT development. The comparison of Nepal with other similar economies provides an opportunity to identify the gaps in different sectors and work for the development of those sectors. The development of ICT has led to growth of many other economies and Nepal also shows the potential of economic growth as an outcome of ICT development. More areas of study still exists in the sector of ICT in Nepal. The study of ICT’s role in individual sectors would further give detailed idea about further opportunities in these sector. . The paper presents further areas of study in the context of ICT and Nepal. It would help more researches to be done which in overall would help develop the ICT services and Infrastructure in Nepal.

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국문초록

네팔의 정보 통신 기술 개발 샤르마, 아쉬스 네팔 정보기술 센터

김윤선 한동대학교

본 연구는 네팔의 정보 통신 기술의 발전 상황을 발전된 다른 나라와 비교하여 네발의 ICT 발전 방향과 다른 나라들과의 발전 차이를 분석하였다. 또한, 네팔 ICT발전을 위한 각각 의 분야별 역할에 대하여 분석하였다. 전체적인 ICT 상황을 살펴보면 네팔은 ICT 기반시설과 서비스에서 선진국은 물론이고 다른 개발도산국보다도 덜 발전하였다. 디지털 격차는 극명하 게 네팔에서 나타났다. 본 연구를 위한 네팔의 기초 데이터를 다양한 방법으로 획득하였다. ICT 개발을 할 때, 네트워크 준비성 인덱스, 전자정부 개발 인덱스, GDP에서 ICT의 역할, 등 의 많은 요인들이 영향을 미친다. [주제어: 네팔, 정보통신기술, 정보격차, 개발, 네트워크 준비성 ,전자정부]

논문접수일: 2016년 5월 14일 / 심사일: 2016년 5월 24일 / 게재확정일: 2016년 6월 17일 First Author(제1저자): Mr. Sharma, Aashis had been working as a Computer Engineer at National Information Technology Center (NITC), Kathmandu, Nepal. NITC is the government agency for Nepal government which manages different Information Technology related projects as well as manages the only Government Integrated Data Center (GIDC) for Nepal government. His main interest in ICT lies in Information Centric Networking (ICN), data security, network security, big data, cloud computing and encryption technologies. He has worked on implementing different e-government projects for Nepal government. He has also worked in the team for the smooth operation of Government Integrated Data Center. He has also worked in the team alongside Korean experts for the planning of Disaster Recovery site for Nepal government. He has an experience in tackling and solving issues related to network and data security. He has completed his under engineering studies from Kathmandu Engineering College, Tribhuvan University, Nepal majoring in Electronics and Communication Engineering. Corresponding Author(교신저자): Kim, Yun Seon, Ph.D. is a Director and Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Global Development and Entrepreneurship at Handong Global University in Korea. His main interest in ICT lies in the convergence of knowledge management, intelligent knowledge-


based systems, VR/AR/MR, data analysis, optimization, big data and global development. He has worked on a variety of high-level assignments, including projects for the United States of America Department of Defense, United States of America Department of Education, Ford Motor Company, the Ministry of Knowledge Economy of Korea and the Korea Meteorological Administration. He obtained his PhD in Industrial Engineering at Wayne State University in Michigan, United States of America and acquired his Masters Degree in Information Science at University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, United States of America and BAs in Computer Science and Management at Handong Global University in Pohang, Korea.

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