The comprehensive plan - the final draft of which has been prepared by the High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) in collaboration with Korean IT Industry Promotion Agency (KIPA) - will be implemented between 2007 and 2011 after seeking approval of the cabinet.
Madan K Pariyar, member secretary of HLCIT told ekantipur that successful execution of the plan will help create citizen-centric and transparent bureaucratic system, improve productivity of civil servants, enhance national competitiveness and strengthen linkage between government and people and various state organs.
"These improvements will, in turn, push Nepal's position on the UN E-government Readiness Index to 80 from the 126 of the present and allow general citizens to conduct almost 60 percent of activities related to public administration from their homes using a computer and the internet," he said.
Acknowledging that overall development of a country like Nepal, with difficult landscape, is not possible without harnessing the potential of ICT (information and communication technology), the government had initiated the process of formulating the master plan around a year ago.
The plan - considered a roadmap for domestic information and communication sector - is the first comprehensive document, which if executed properly is expected to bridge the digital divide, create knowledge-based society, boost national income and improve quality of life.
In order to achieve the envisaged goals, the master plan has identified four priority sectors, under which 33 projects would be implemented in four different phases.
In the first phase, all the internal processes of the government will be computerized. Upon completion of initial stage of works, initiatives will be taken to provide more comprehensive and citizen-centric services through innovation in administrative process.
In the third phase, online systems will be devised to handle request of citizens and in the last phase all processes of the government will be integrated to form a knowledge-based government.
"In order to evaluate the cost of executing these projects, develop selected e-government applications as identified by master plan and assess the feasibility of the plan, a technical team of Asian Development Bank has already arrived in Nepal and has been working since November last year," Pariyar said.
The government will have detailed information on ways to implement the plan and projects that have been devised, once the team submits the report, he added.
Autor(en)/Author(s): Rupak D Sharma
Quelle/Source: Kantipur Online, 04.04.2007
