Nepali officials and tech entrepreneurs have called upon leading global companies to invest in the tech sector in Nepal.
Addressing a session under the auspices of the ‘Nepal Impact Investment Conference’ organised by the Nepali embassy in London on Tuesday, the founder and CEO of Genese Solution, a UK-based IT consulting company, Anjani Phuyal, said that Nepal has been producing world-class graduates and they are already working for leading global companies in the West.
Citing a recent study conducted by IIDS, a Kathmandu-based think tank, Phuyal highlighted that the IT industry accounted for 1.4% of Nepal’s GDP and 5.5% of foreign exchange reserves in 2022. “We can easily scale this share with the right investment and policies. Nepal’s geographic location is quite important. We are strategically placed. Nepal can be the regional headquarters of big multinational tech companies,” he said.
“Nepal has a distinct advantage in terms of global competitiveness due to the establishment of AWS, Microsoft, and Google academies. These academies have allowed individuals to attain internationally recognized certifications and develop expertise in these technology platforms. This, in turn, can help Nepal produce a pool of skilled resources that can compete at a global level. Nepal now has a progressive legal and infrastructure framework, offers a skilled workforce, and there is an advantage of time zones also,” he said. Phuyal said that the government of Nepal should emulate policies of the UK, India, Israel and Singapore governments, for example, to develop the country as an emerging tech hub. He also called upon the government of Nepal to adopt the Cloud First policy, reduce the minimum FDI threshold, promote ICT education in collaboration with AWS and Microsoft Academy and introduce policies like e-residency. “Global investors can begin to create a connected Nepali workforce,” he remarked. Earlier, addressing the investment summit, Finance Minister Dr Prakash Sharan Mahat shared that the government of Nepal was pursuing open, liberal and market-oriented policies. “The budget has announced a second generation of economic reforms to increase productivity, continue instant reforms, develop the digital economy and move towards adopting the fourth industrial revolution,” said Minister Mahat. He urged British companies to come and invest in Nepal, including in the ICT sector, and make use of Nepal’s strategic location.
