Business License e-portal At “National Information Technology Center” 

Abstract

This report is the result of the three months internship program on business license e-portal at National Information Technology Center (NITC). It was established in the year 2002, with the vision of developing and promoting Infonnation Technology Center of Government of Nepal.
IT plays a very vital role in overall economic growth of any country. The way of carrying out business in the world today is changing at a very high speed. Thus, government has no alternative other than to move in that direction and adopt the emerging new technologies to modernize their service delivery. The government of Nepal has a strong belief that ICT should be utilized to move into the era of electronic government aimed ,at simplifying procedures, bringing transparency, accountability and making credible timely information available to all citizens and providing all services in an efficient and cost effective manner.
Business License e-portal (www.licenseportal.gov.np) is a part of such on-going e-service delivery activities of the Nepal Government. It provides a gateway to access detailed information on relevant business licenses and pennits, including requirements, costs, application forms and contact details for the relevant regulatory and issuing agency. Up until now, all the licenses were characterized by lengthy processing time, lack of coordination among institutions, lack of information, and numerous interactions with government officials.
However, if online submission/ application of licenses cannot be facilitated then, the interest towards the e-portal will reduce with time. Thus, implementation of digital signature and e-payment system should be pursued strongly for the implementation of e-submission of license applications and online license certificate, so as to make the business license e-portal transactional.