State-of-art cyber bureau building under the assistance of Korean government underway

Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the South Korean governmental agency for Official Development Assistance (ODA) is assisting Nepal to build a state-of-art cyber bureau building in Nepal under the project “Establishment of Cyber Bureau with Capacity Building for Nepal Police”.

In an event organised on 30 August, the Korean Ambassador to Nepal, Tae-Young Park, and Inspector General of Nepal Police, Basanta Bahadur Kunwar jointly laid the building’s foundation stone at Samakhusi.

A total grant of USD 8 million (approx. Rs 1.6 billion) is allocated for the project and the estimated date of completion of the building is February 2025. However, details are unknown about the share of spending in the project or whether it will be completely funded by the KOICA.

KOICA has also committed equipment related to cybercrime investigation and digital forensic laboratory, and capacity building of related human resources of Nepal Police.

The project is believed to increase the anti-cybercrime capabilities of the Nepal Police.

The two governments signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the project on 23 September 2022 at MoF along with another MoU for the project “Strengthening Stage-Wise Support System for the Stable Reintegration of Korea Returnee Migrants in Nepal” which also amounted to USD 8 million.

Last Wednesday, KOICA also signed a Record of Discussion (RoD) with the Ministry of Federal Affairs and General Administration for the project “Green Job Creation through Recycling and Upcycling Project in Pokhara Metropolitan City”.

The project plans to establish a Green Venture Zone (GVZ) in Pokhara that will provide business incubation support (financial, technological, and market linkage) to new and existing Recycle Upcycle enterprises and create over 30 enterprises and thousands of green jobs. The GVZ is also planned to serve as an information hub on recycling, upcycling, innovation, and startups and has outlets for recycled and upcycled products and exhibition halls to host national and international environment-related events.

KOICA in its press statement said that the project activities will lead to massive behavioural change at the community level, where people will adopt waste segregation at the household level reducing the burden of Pokhara’s dumping site.