Government aims to improve telecommunication services: Communications Minister

Kathmandu / July 30: Minister for Information and Communications, Dr. Bikram Timilsina, has said that the government aims to make the current fiscal year 2026/27 a year of unprecedented reforms in Nepal’s telecommunications services.

He has instructed the ministry and its subordinate bodies to work in a way that shows significant changes in expanding access to telephone and internet services and improving their quality to achieve the government’s goals.

Addressing the annual progress review for the past fiscal year 2082/83 and the ministry-level development problem-solving committee meeting held today at the Ministry of Information and Communications, Minister Timilsina made it clear that the ministry has prioritized in the current fiscal year the expansion of 4G services to remote areas, the launch of 5G services, improvement of service quality, and effective service delivery to citizens.

The Communications Minister stated that the targets set in previous years haven’t been achieved as expected and it was now time to work in a way that shows results. He expressed the ministry’s full commitment to provide support for necessary policy, legal, and inter-agency coordination to improve the telecom sector, while also making it clear that any delay in implementation will not be acceptable.

“This year will be a year of improvement for telephone and internet services. We are moving forward with the goal of unprecedented changes in terms of access and quality. The government has taken the telecommunications sector as the most ambitious sector for the upcoming fiscal year. Everyone should take on the responsibility to establish this as a year of unprecedented development and progress in telecommunication services in Nepal,” he said while giving instructions to the staff of the ministry and its subordinate bodies.

He mentioned that there is a need to change the work culture, stating that no employee or body has the luxury to stay inactive.

Communications Minister Timilsina said that he felt coordination between the ministry and its subordinate bodies was weak and instructed the related entities to improve it immediately.

He pointed out the need to move forward by learning from past mistakes and said that improving performance is unavoidable to reduce complaints from citizens about government services.

In the meeting, Communications Minister Timilsina also expressed dissatisfaction over what he called the weak capital spending and implementation capacity of the ministry and its subordinate agencies.

He mentioned that it is a managerial weakness for issues that the concerned body can resolve on its own to reach a ministry-level committee and also instructed to develop a culture of resolving problems in a timely manner.

Communications Minister Timilsina said that the government has already started the necessary reforms to make the Gorakhapatra Sansthan, the Rastriya Samachar Samiti (RSS), and the Public Service Broadcasting institutions more effective, professional, and competitive.

He mentioned that it is necessary to improve the condition of public communication institutions, saying, “Mass communication institutions carrying a long history have been left in a weak state. I am concerned about the quality of the news content from those institutions. There is a need to make newsrooms more professional, competitive, and accountable. Public communication institutions must enhance their credibility, quality, and competitiveness.”

Minister Timilsina also instructed to complete the remaining internal audits in the ministry and its subordinate bodies within the current fiscal year.

Terming the first quarter of the current fiscal year as a decisive period, he instructed the ministry and its subordinate entities to start with result-oriented performance from the beginning.

“The next three months should not be like the previous three months. It is now clear which direction the government is moving in. You should show excellent results in the first quarter of the current fiscal year,” the Communications Minister insisted.

Stating that the kind of progress we can make over the coming year will be visible right from the first quarterly review, he said, “So when setting up performance agreements, they shouldn’t be based on weak indicators but should be designed to show clear results and improvements. Performance agreements are meant to make employees and leadership accountable and results-oriented.”

In the meeting, a detailed review was carried out on last fiscal year’s annual progress, the implementation status of development projects, budget spending, government reform programmes, the problems faced by the ministry and its subordinate bodies, and the priorities for the current fiscal year. RSS