What have been the achievements of CAN SofTech since it began five years ago?
The first thing is that people have understood that software is something that has to be purchased and it is also a property. Local developers have also been able to explore the market and now they feel that local market is also a potential market for them. The participation of visitors has increased by nearly 10 fold and the number of participating stalls has also reached 40 from 14. We are getting good response in terms of sponsorship as well. I believe that we are being able to provide platform and branding opportunity to new companies.
How will this edition of SofTech be different from previous events?
This time the event will not be limited to exhibition like before. We are organizing seminar on e-NGO and ethical hacking. Title sponsor of the event Midas is launching school edition of Midas Edukit called Digital Class. Similarly, Silvercrest Network, authorized distributor of Eset, will be unveiling new edition of anti-virus. We are also organizing closed-group seminar for government employees for transformation to e-governance.
What will be the special highlight of the event?
Every participating company is offering unique software so the event is special in many ways. Ebuzzasia is providing all the information about stalls through the website. Sparrow SMS is offering the information about stalls and the products through SMS.
Whom do think should not miss visiting CAN SofTech 2011?
SofTech offers a wide range of software services useful for banks, corporate houses, hospitals, educational institutes and others. Our target visitors are fresh graduate students with keen interest in ICT, IT students, corporate officials, government officials and anyone who is interested in software industry.
What do you think are the bottleneces for the growth of software industry in Nepal?
To be specific, human resource is the major issue. We still don´t have trained human resource. The other is public sector which has a huge market and is not implementing the use of software. Only if some government offices start working through software, dozens of software companies can get good business. Besides, our developers lack branding and marketing. Some of them don´t want to expose their work. The problem of infrastructure is there but it is not a severe one. Lastly, we require strong policy at the government level that will encourage users to purchase local software. But, at the same time the policy should not stop us from trading abroad as the market of software is really huge outside the country.
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