The seminar on the Business Incubator initiative in Nepal was inaugurated on August 24, 2004 by Honorable Vice-Chairman, Dr. Shankar Sharma, National Planning Commission. Honorable Vice-Chairman Mr. Sharad Chandra Shah, High Level Commission for Information Technology chaired the session. The working session was chaired by the Member Secretary Mr. Atma Ram Ghimire, High Level Commission for Information Technology. Mr. Govind Dev Pandey presented paper on "Business Incubation Start-up Consideration", Mr. Suresh Kumar Regmi presented paper on "Incubator Initiative in Nepal" and Shashi Bhattarai presented paper on "Business Incubator Planning for Nepal - Inception Briefs".

Although Nepal has been working in the areas of enterprise development & entrepreneurship development, business development services in the past; the initiative of business incubation is new phenomenon in Nepal. From our study so far, the process has started from last fiscal year in both INGO circle such as Helvetas, SNV, UNDP and in the government organizations such as Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply, Department of Cottage and Small Industries, Industrial Enterprise Development Institute, High Level Commission for Information Technology, etc.

As per the infoDev program of the World Bank, IT Professional Forum has received a grant for the planning of business incubator initiative in Nepal. The objective of this initiative is to plan for the business incubation services to promote for the private sector development in Nepal with the integration and effective use of Information Communication Technology in the businesses and small enterprise development process.

This project is very timely when various INGOs and Government agencies were beginning to consider business incubators as a new tool