Government to develop, supervise Software for public institutions

Kathmandu, Aug. 21

The government has moved ahead to create an institutional structure to domestically develop software for the public institutions and provide policy guidance to them.

A meeting of the Cabinet on Wednesday has approved the Software Development and Operation Committee (Formation) Order, 2083 for the same.

It has paved a way to establish a Software Development and Operation Centre (SDOC) that will supervise its activities, to make public service delivery information technology-based through the development, upgrading, necessary maintenance and other related work of software used by public bodies.

According to the PMO, the Order provides for the formation of a six-member committee, chaired by the secretary responsible for governance affairs at the Prime Minister's Office.

"The committee will provide policy guidance to the centre. It will have a 6-member expert committee, led by a secretary of the PMO, to supervise the software used in the public agencies," Spokesperson of the PMO Hemraj Aryal informed at a press meet held on Thursday.

The SDOC will be led by an executive director and will have 30 employees, including a gazetted first-class officer from the relevant service. Aryal said that additional staff will be appointed according to the need.

According to the order, the centre will undertake software development, upgrading and maintenance work as requested by public bodies. It will also upgrade and maintain software systems developed by the centre itself, as well as various legacy software systems requested by public bodies.

Similarly, the centre will provide round-the-clock technical support for various software systems developed by it.

"The order further states that, during software development, maintenance and upgrading, the centre must make appropriate arrangements for the secure hosting, processing, backup, access control and technical protection of data," the Prime Minister's Secretariat informed.

PMO directs to use domestic goods

The PMO issued a letter on Friday requesting all public bodies - including federal ministries, commissions, secretariats, provincial governments, local governments and Nepali diplomatic missions abroad - to give priority to Nepali products in their procurement processes.

At the direction of Prime Minister Balendra Shah and following recent consultations with domestic entrepreneurs and businesspeople, the PMO has requested all government agencies to use domestically produced goods and services.

The move has been taken to ensure the full implementation of existing legal provisions governing public procurement, said Aryal.

"The government has taken this initiative to strictly enforce existing legal provisions with the objectives of increasing the contribution of domestic production to the national economy, substituting rising imports, promoting domestic products, protecting local skills and entrepreneurship, and creating employment opportunities within the country," he said.

In line with the request from the PMO, government offices will now be required to make arrangements to use Nepali handicraft products, wherever possible, for meetings, ceremonies, souvenirs, gifts and decorative items.

However, such goods must be procured in accordance with the Public Procurement Act, 2063, and other prevailing legal provisions, while ensuring standards relating to availability, quality, price and safety.

In addition, public bodies will be required to explicitly mention the priority to be given to domestic products when preparing tender documents.

Responding to the sustained demand from the private sector entrepreneurs and business associations, the government had implemented the Directives for the Use of Domestic Products in Public Institutions in 2014.

The policy couldn't make any impact and the government came up with a new edition of the policy in 2024 but public institutions received it coldly.

While the public entities must purchase local goods, as far as they are available. However, such goods should be produced locally and should have obtained 'Nepal Standard' and the manufacturers should be registered with the government and. 

Published in The Rising Nepal on 22 August 2026.