Minister for Information and Communications Dr. Rijal opening the ceremony.

Nepal Television (NTV), the pioneer station in the country, in association with the APO and National Productivity and Economic Development Center (NPEDC) launched a Demonstration Project on Knowledge Management (KM) on 21 July. The project aims at enhancing the service delivery and productivity of the state-owned broadcaster through knowledge management among its employees. The project will be implemented in three phases over 12–15 months.

Minister for Information and Communications Dr. Minendra Rijal attended the launch at the Hotel Radisson, remarking, “I hope that the KM project will come in handy in meeting the growing challenges of the institution as NTV transitions to a public-service broadcaster.” Ministry of Industry Secretary Krishna Gyanwali, who is also the APO Director for Nepal, stated, “The project will help transform individual knowledge to collective knowledge.” Acting Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Communications Kabiraj Khanal concurred, while urging NTV to set up monitoring indicators from the beginning of the project to evaluate the outcome. NTV General Manager Laxman Humagain expressed the belief that, “The project will enhance the service delivery of NTV staffers and thus contribute to improving the overall productivity of the organization.” Speakers including officiating NPEDC General Manager Ratna Bajracharya and Alternate Director for Nepal Jeet Bahadur Thapa highlighted the importance of the project for enhancing productivity.

APO Senior Program Officer, K.D. Bhardwaj highlighted the role of the APO in the KM demonstration project and suggested that NTV could best utilize organizational resources in enhancing the triple bottom lines of productivity, profitability, and credibility. The project, the first of its kind in Nepal, will be assisted by APO expert Praba Nair and monitored by the NPEDC. The organizers plan to develop a model project within NTV that can be replicated in other domestic institutions in future. The APO has been conducting similar projects across the Asia-Pacific over the past 50 years and has accumulated expertise in enhancing the productivity of public organizations.