The High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) of Nepal Government, in partnership with USAID's Information Communication Technologies Global Development Allieance (ICT GDA) project and Magnus Consuling Group Pvt. Ltd.  present Nepal's first Rural Information Gateway Portal.

High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) is an apex body formed under the chairmanship of Rt. Hon. Prime Minister of Nepal with a view to providing crucial strategic direction and helping formulate appropriate policy responses for the development of ICT sector in the country as well as harnessing these technologies to meet key developmental challenges including governance reform and catalyzing economic growth for poverty reduction.

The government of Nepal strongly believes that its efforts in macro-economic and governance reform arena stand to benefit immensely from proper harnessing of recent advances in the technological domain notably, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The fact remains however that the technologies on their own devoid of enabling institutional, policy, and regulatory environment will fall short of producing intended developmental outcomes. This clearly defines the context within which National IT Policy and Strategy of the Government of Nepal was announced in the year 2000. These policy provisions lay down a comprehensive framework for the development of IT sector in the country. Among others, the policy envisages the creation of a number of high level institutional entities to provide a direction and leadership for the development of ICT sector in the country.

The project has been formed with the participation of Mercantile Communications Pvt. Ltd. and Winrock International-Nepal. The alliance will support the establishment of ICT kisks as both commercial and community based ventures to improve rural connectivity and the socio-economic conditions in rural areas. The porject facilitates sustainable and cost effective expansion of Very Small Aperture Terminal (VSAT) based ICT and its services to rural areas. The project believes that ICT promotion  is an effective vehicle to promote peace and reduce the conflict arising in rural areas of Nepal by using ICT s means to stimulate new economic activities and rural development. The services include not only installing hardware to establish ICT kiosks in rural areas, but also carrying out awareness and business development support activities that assist the rural population to use these kiosks for income generation, government and business access, and knowledge sharing.

The partners, through this alliance, are extending ICT and ICT based services emphasizing equitable distribution of services, innovations in technology, financeing mechanisms, information dissemination and capacity development. The partners believe that this effort will set a new standard for deploying sustainable ICT services in Nepal through public-private partnership at competitive costs with high performance quality and diversity of services. Most importantly, it is anticipated to stimulate economic development and provide an effective mechanism for extending government, non-government and business services to the rural sector, and thereby help to address some of the root cause of poverty and rual exclusion  in Nepal.