NTA to Focus on Rural Development to Improve ICT Index Position

In a bid to raise Nepal’s position in the ICT Development Index, Nepal Telecommunication Authority (NTA) is going to focus on the rural development by improving telecommunication services by expanding the broadband facilities in rural areas.

In a report published in 2016, Nepal is at the 142nd position in the ICT Development Index. Min Prasad Aryal, spokesperson for NTA said, “As we have been promoting different telecommunication services in recent times through the Rural Telecommunication Development Fund (RTDF). We are optimistic that telecommunication services will reach rural parts of the country soon”. He added that Nepal could improve in the ICT Development Index.

To do so, NTA has started a project to expand the broadband facility to different village development committees (VDCs), health and educational institutions, and government offices. This project has been targetted for the year 2020.

Aryal said, “We have also started work to lay optical fiber along the major highways across the country to ensure that every region of the country is connected with internet facility.” After this, Nepal’s rank in the ICT Development Index will increase by a huge margin.

The ICT Development Index is an index published by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union based on internationally agreed information and communication technologies (ICT) indicators. This makes it a valuable tool for benchmarking the most important indicators for measuring the information society. The IDI is a standard tool that governments, operators, development agencies, researchers and others can use to measure the digital divide and compare ICT performance within and across countries.

Nepal was ranked as the 136th nation in ICT Development Index in 2015 among 175 countries who are members of ITU. As per ITU report, South Korea, Denmark, and Iceland are ranked first, second and third in ICT Development Index.

Edited by – Prabina Neupane