Orientation Program for Research Team Report
Institute for Integrated Development Studies (IIDS) organized an orientation session for 15 enumerators recruited for a research project titled ‘IT Industry Growth Study’. The three-day session took place at the IIDS campus, from February 27th to March 1st, 2023. The session was moderated by Dr. Amrita Sharma, Consultant, IIDS, and Dharmendra Lekhak, Program Specialist, IIDS. Dr. Biswash Gauchan, Executive Director at IIDS, along with Mr. Bal Krishna Joshi, Fintech Evangelist, and Shabda Gyawali, Investment Director at Dolma Impact Fund provided their keynote remarks, respectively. This study is supported by The World Bank, Dolma Impact fund, and its partners.
Dr. Gauchan mentioned that this study is IIDS’s first original initiative. Furthermore, he emphasized the need for Nepal to invest resources in prospering sectors such as Information Communication and Technology (ICT) to propel the country’s economic growth. Noting that so-called “sectors for growth” such as tourism and hydropower have been unable to significantly add to Nepal’s general development, he stated that the country must find new sectors capable of contributing more to the economy. He noted that IIDS was dedicated to shedding light on such industries and helping advance favorable policies in such areas.
As Nepal is a landlocked country, transporting goods would be extremely costly due to high logistic costs and physical impediments. As a consequence, he stressed the importance of transforming our economy into one based on services. This is where he claims ICT comes into action. Because the country already has facilities in place to support the sector’s development, exporting ICT services can help Nepal earn foreign currency. According to him, the primary goal of the study is to gather statistics on this potential.