Govt to organze Start-up Summit

Kathmandu, Mar. 23: With an aim of facilitating the growth of start-up ecosystem in Nepal, the government has been planning to organise a two-day ‘National Start-up Summit 2017’.

The event will be organised on June 14 and 15 by the Ministry of Industry (MoI) in collaboration of Nepalese Young Entrepreneurs’ Forum (NYEF) and other non-government and private sector organizations.

According to the MoI, the first day of the summit will be community bootcamp.

“The summit is being organised to demonstrate that the government is serious in pursuing entrepreneurship through start-ups as an agenda of economic development and employment generation. We also aim to initiate a wave of start-up culture in Nepal,” said Minister for Industry Nabindra Raj Joshi at a press meet organised at the Ministry.

The Minister said that the event will also facilitate a multi-stakeholder dialogue on the importance of start-ups in national development and policy environment conducive for the start-ups to flourish.

The government had formed National Start-up Committee a couple of months ago to provide policy advisory and guidance to the government.

“This committee is comprised of national level stakeholders from various sectors, who are committed and are already playing significant role in fostering start-up culture in Nepal,” read a concept note published by the MoI.

The event will feature start-up barcamp, key note speeches, thematic panel discussions, initiatives talks, start-up showcases and networking events.

Barcamp is and informal gathering of start-up community where the community themselves get organized to discussion on various aspects of start-up opportunity and challenges.

Likewise, there will be panel discussions on the topics like start-up opportunities and challenges, legal and policy context for start-ups in Nepal, start-ups and internationalization and start-up in rural context.

The Ministry said that government representatives and policy makers, private sector entrepreneurs and associations, start-ups from districts, media, students and aspiring entrepreneurs, start-up representatives, civil society and donors, and bankers and investors will participate in the summit.