Kathmandu, June 15: Prime Minister Girija Prasad Koirala has said that telecommunication services are indispensable for development of the country, which has a very difficult topography.
The telecommunication sector, which witnessed a tremendous development in the last 50 years, would play a pivotal role in bringing about changes in various sectors, he said at a function organised here today to mark the golden jubilee celebrations of Nepal Telecommunications Corporation (NTC).
“These services that helped people in democratic movement can equally help us now to strengthen the system,” he said. “We can also use the telecommunication services in containing Maoist insurgency.”
Stating that telecom services could be useful for promoting education especially in the rural areas with no road links, Koirala said these services would be equally useful in the health sector as well.
Premier Koirala asked all the NTC employees to remain committed to developing telecom services in all parts of the country and said that the government was sensitive towards their incentives.
Information and Communications Minister Jaya Prakash Prasad Gupta said that the government had made some important decisions for the development of communication sector that played a crucial role in national development.
The government encouraged private sector’s involvement in telecommunication sector to modernise it and to make it more competitive in Nepal’s market.
“Besides, Nepal Television will be linked to satellite within a few months’ time and will have a metro channel for the capital,” he said. “Radio Nepal will also start its second band transmission from its Surkhet-based station”.
From the chair, Information and Communications Secretary Sriram Paudel shed light on the importance of telecommunications in over all development of the nation.
Welcoming the guests and participants earlier, NTC General Manager Chet Prasad Bhattarai said that the corporation had made a significant progress during the 25-year long history of its services in the country.
He said that within a couple of years’ time NTC would have an increased capacity of 600 thousand telephone lines from the current number which is less than 300 thousand all over the country with at least two lines in each of the village development committees.
The corporation that recently started providing the Internet and mobile telephone services last year would establish second satellite station, spread optical fiber along the east-west highway and would provide Internet and e-mail services to all exchanges, he said. “We will also begin pay phone services and enhance the capacity of micro wave link.”
NTC’s past chairmen and the employees who served more than 25 years were felicitated on the occasion.