Information technology-related topics ranging from citizen apps to cryptocurrencies got a lot of discussion in the first session of the winter session of Parliament, which began on Friday.

The leaders of major parties who addressed the meeting expressed the view that Nepal is lagging behind in modern technology such as crypto along with the progress and potential of Nepal's information technology sector, the government's efforts to facilitate it, and the context of making service delivery easier through digital infrastructure. In the

meeting, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli asserted that efforts are being made to improve public service delivery and the entire state operation process by using digital infrastructure such as citizen app, national identity card, file movement tracking system, office automation. During his speech, he said that the civic app is important to make public services and governance hassle-free and transparent, and more than 50 services have been connected to it so far. 

"The citizen app that we have started in the field of public services and good governance is one such initiative, which has made government services hassle-free and transparent," he said, "more than 50 services are connected to it." Nagarik App is currently the number one most downloaded Nepali app in Nepal. So far 57 lakh 26 thousand people have downloaded it.

Oli emphasized that the citizen app is becoming effective in promoting government service delivery through digital means. Just as a few years ago, our payment system was revolutionized when payment was started by scanning QR code, customers got the facility of payment through digital means, in the same way, now the facility of opening a bank account and receiving government services by scanning the QR code from the citizen app is the goal of 'not a line, but an online service'. It is being completed,' Oli said, 'Government work is being made fast, efficient and transparent.' He informed the House that more than 250,000 people have linked themselves to the national identity card through this app within two weeks of the national identity card being linked to the citizen app. Prime Minister Oli said that the hassle of paying fines for violating road rules has been removed from providing driver's license through the citizen app. "With the connection to the driver's license citizen app, the physical card of the driver's license has been made unnecessary," he said, "55,000 to 60,000 people are taking this service in a day. We have all seen the 'funny' information on social media where both 'paying and taking' are shocked because the rules are being paid online Oli informed. According to him, arrangements are being made to get information about work in government offices through mobile phones. Along with this, Prime Minister Oli added about the improvement in the process of entering the Singha Durbar, 'it is a small matter, the main administrative center of the country, the permission to enter the Singha Durbar was a hassle and there was a hassle of standing in line to enter the Singha Durbar. Now you don't need to get permission from anyone to enter Singha Durbar, you can enter by scanning the QR code of the government ID card.' He claimed that through the

ordinance, Nepali information technology-based companies have been created an environment where they can compete in the international market. "Now, an environment has been created for our Nepali companies to open subsidiaries and branches abroad, do business and bring in the income from abroad to Nepal," he said. CPN (UML) Member of Parliament Yogesh Bhattarai also claimed that a large foreign investment has entered Nepal through the IT sector and the government has opened the way for facilitation by understanding the need to further promote this sector. 

'Today, about one and a half/two lakh Nepali youths are working for foreign IT companies in Nepal, they are saying that we are able to compete with many foreign multinational companies, the government should open the way,' Bhattarai said, 'This ordinance has opened the way.' Mentioning that the IT sector has so far brought in foreign capital worth about 70 billion rupees to Nepal, he told the House that IT companies have committed to bring in 10 billion rupees in the coming days. "The government should celebrate it," he said.

Janamat Party President CK Raut also welcomed the initiative of creating a comfortable environment for the IT sector in the ordinance brought by the government. He mentioned that the Nepalese youth have made significant progress in the IT sector and said that even though the government has not listed the IT sector, the biggest export of Nepal is IT services. "The youth of our IT sector has also done well," he said.

Raut raised the issue of political obstacles in cryptocurrency and expressed the intention that Nepal has not been able to take advantage of the technology. "We have such a lack of public awareness that our neighboring country, Bhutan, has already collected 2/3 years of gross domestic product by selling cryptocurrencies. But crypto-currency has been made illegal in our country," he said, "we are so far behind." However, he gave a positive response to the fact that through the ordinance Nepali IT companies are allowed to open branches abroad, invest and bring the income from there to the country.