Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba Thursday will launch the CAN Info-Tech 2002 at the Birendra Convention Centre (BICC). The 8th Nepal Information Technology Show and Conference will be open to the general public from Friday.
For more information log on to www.can.org.np Meanwhile, Information Technology (IT) professionals, vendors and enthusiasts from the eastern region of Nepal have formed the Computer Association of Nepal – Eastern Region (CAN-E).
This is the first regional member of the Computer Association of Nepal (CAN). The annual general meeting of CAN held last month has already approved the regional membership.
Affiliated with CAN, CAN-E will function as a fully autonomous member of the organization. It will work closely with the central as well as other regional members of CAN through exchange of ideas and on promotion of IT activities in the eastern region. CAN-E will also act as an umbrella organization for district level associations and all kinds of IT activities in the region. Its secretariat will be located at Itahari in Sunsari district to facilitate the members from all districts of eastern region.
Mr. Suresh Lohani, Biratnagar, is the first president of CAN-E. Mr Bijay Raj Shrestha, Itahari, is the vice-president. Mr. Raju Nepal from Itahari is the secretary and Mr. Nabin Shrestha from Dharan is the treasurer.
The regional group will be able to provide the voice of local IT community at the central policy level. So far, the regional IT community has not been able to participate at central policy making. The regional association will also work towards fostering close ties between the business and users community in the region.
CAN-E in collaboration with CAN will also have regular tech talks, discussion sessions, and interaction programs on different IT issues. This will include talks from prominent national and international speakers. CAN-E will also have a collective presence at the upcoming CAN Info Tech 2001. CAN-E hopes to organize the first ever regional CAN-E Info Tech in 2002.
As the spread of technology has grown in recent years, the use of IT in this region has grown significantly. While cities like Biratnagar and Dharan were introduced to the technology early on, with continued decrease in price, penetration is now high even in non-urban areas. Smaller towns too have seen significant increase in the numbers of computers being sold. Similarly, with initiation of computer courses by Purwanchal University (PU), there has been a huge increase in the number
of students studying IT at the higher level.
it is estimated that the IT market in the eastern regional is Rs. 200 million with hardware sales accounting for more than 65%. The remaining is spread between education, training, software, Internet and other services.
The Computer Association Nepal (CAN) was established in December 1992 as an autonomous, non political, non partisan, non-profitable and service oriented organization. The Computer Association has been formed with the involvement of professionals, specialists, manufacturers, institutions and the related organizations of Computer and Information Technology within the country.