'Govt has not called a single tender with the objective to give it to a local company'

Midas Technologies is the title sponsor of CAN SofTech 2011. The annual event of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN) is being held at DECC Hall, World Trade Center, Tripureshwor in the capital from September 15 to 18. Established about 10 years ago, the company is already a recognized name in software industry particularly in health and education sectors for its animated teaching material like Midas Edukit. Samiksha Koirala of Republica caught up with Managing Director of the company Chhatra Hari Karki to talk about the status of software industry in the country and what one can expect from CAN SofTech 2011. [break]



Being the title sponsor, what are your expectations from this event?



CAN SofTech is a completely different event from CAN InfoTech. Since, the event aims to raise awareness about software, our target will not be trade. We are expecting quality visitors in the range of 50,000. Mainly, it´s the decision makers who decide about the software. We are expecting decision makers to visit the event so that they can know about the recent developments in the software industry and can meet with software developers at the event.



Do you plan to unveil any new service during SofTech?



We will be introducing ´Digital Class´ which can be used by teacher as a teaching tool. Before, we have already introduced Midas Edukit which is animated interactive audio-visual educational material for students of Nursery to Grade 10. Digital Class is also an interactive class where a teacher can work as the facilitator and present the audio-visual materials prepared by our company. We have designed the class in such a way that students will learn quickly and easily. At first stage, we have designed the program for Grade 1 to Grade 7 for Science and Mathematics. We are planning to give away this software free of cost to five different schools. We will be also introducing ´Digital Class´ in 100 private schools in the valley and will be charging Rs 150 per student.



How satisfactory do you find the software industry in terms of turnover?



Although software industry is still to be recognized as part of the productive sector, the number of software companies are growing. In terms of revenue, I would not say it is overwhelming but the response so far is positive. We are mainly working in education and health related software and our users are quite satisfied. Among hospitals, 95 hospitals have replaced foreign-made software with software developed by us. The number of schools using our products have crossed 450. We have 120 employees working on different projects under Midas Technologies. Once more people are able to understand the importance of software usage, the business will be definitely very good. So, at this stage we are undertaking promotional initiatives rather than targeting bigger topline.



Do you think the perception about software has changed in recent years?



By now most of the people have understood that software is something that doesn´t come for free. Still, the awareness level is not enough. A program like SofTech can really help raise awareness and provide platform to local software developers.



What do you think should be done so that the software companies in Nepal can flourish?



The first thing that the government can do is to encourage local companies. Till now in my opinion the government has not called a single tender with the objective to give it to a local company. The conditions are such that no Nepali company can even make a bid. Use of software is still limited in private companies. Since the use of software is directly related to business, more economic activities are required.

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