The private sector on Monday said it is ready to coordinate with the government in establishing incubation centres to promote and strengthen the startup ecosystem in Nepal.

The government through the budget had announced establishing incubation centres in all seven provinces.

On Monday, the first Conference on Establishing Business Incubators was launched. It was jointly organised by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, The International centre for Integrated Mountain Development and Antarprerana.

The mission as per the conference is to turn Nepal into a StartupNation.

“The government has focused on national production and protection of entrepreneurs and for that, it has announced a programme to open business incubation centres in all seven provinces,” said Dilendra Prasad Badu, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Supplies. “We have allocated a budget for it,” he said.

There is a need for industrial transformation with more industry and entrepreneurs that contributes to national production, the prosperity of the country, the creation of jobs and reducing the trade deficit, Badu said.

Shekhar Golchha, president of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry, said that the success rate of startups is low and having startup incubators are crucial in increasing its success rate.

“The federation is more than delighted to collaborate in creating fully functional incubation centres in all provinces of Nepal,” Golchha said.

“The special attention given to the startups in India has shown the successful establishment of e-commerce and its contribution to the Indian economy. So, to increase the industry entrepreneurs' incubator centre is essential and for this the investment from the government is important,” Golchha said.

The ‘startup manifesto’ under StartupNation presented in the programme aims to foster an entrepreneurial mindset and become a startup-friendly country with a dynamic and conducive startup ecosystem by 2030. A startup ecosystem will ensure faster adoption of innovations relevant to society, thus, it will work towards developing policies for entrepreneurial goals and technological advancements.

The manifesto also aims to achieve 100,000 new quality job opportunities by 2030 and encourage a green, independent, inclusive and resilient economy by optimising the use of local talents and resources.

The startup committee under the federation has started a 50 business 50 investor programme and has already organised the pitches of the 20 nominated startups businesses to investors and many investors are interested in investing in them.

The federation’s vision paper, National Economic Transformation 2030, has the objective to grow Nepal’s economy to $100 billion by 2030 and also to reduce the trade deficit by half. The vision paper prioritises creating jobs from organised sectors and the development of micro, small and medium entrepreneurs and startups among others.

The government's new startup policy will help to sort out the problems and challenges in the startup sector, said Narayan Prasad Duwadi, joint secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies. “Despite a three year delay in establishing a startup challenge fund, we hope that the government will implement it this year,” he said.