Executive Summary Background Bordering two of the world’s fastest-growing economies – India and China – Nepal has eight of the world’s highest mountains, an abundance of natural resources, and multidimensional cultural heritage attracting tourists globally. Despite having these enticing features, Nepal has not been able to tap its growth potential due to prolonged political uncertainty. That stated, Nepal has made significant progress on reforms with the adoption of a new Constitution in 2015, transitioning from a unitary to federal state, and election of a stable government. The new government’s priorities are centered on development and targeted initiatives to realize its goal of attaining developing nation status by 2022, and middle-income country status by 2030. The Prime Minister of Nepal, Khadga Prasad Oli, has outlined his vision of “Prosperous Nepal, Happy Nepali” with broad objectives to address some of the basic challenges facing the country. Key focus areas include:        Building capabilities to grow the country’s tourism sector Focusing on rapid build-out of infrastructure – water, transportation, and energy Ending absolute poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment Providing health insurance and free health care for every citizen Accelerating post-earthquake reconstruction efforts Curbing the flow of young talent leaving the country Increasing farming productivity Digital Journey Nepal has enjoyed incredible success in digital adoption compared to its neighbors, with mobile penetration exceeding 100% and Internet penetration reaching 63%. According to the NTA, there was an addition of 2.25 million new Internet users in 2017 alone, translating into approximately 250 new Internet users every hour. Nepal is expected to lead Internet penetration by 2025 in comparison to major economies such as China and India, given its growth trend over the next few years. The growing popularity of social media is a crucial driver for Internet adoption in Nepal, coming second only to Bhutan in South Asia in social media penetration. As at January 2018, Nepal has nearly 9.3 million Facebook users. Entertainment and video sharing are other popular use cases with more than 6.4 million registered users on YouTube. What is Digital Nepal? The early success with Internet and mobile provide the impetus for Nepal to leverage the potential of digital technologies to drive accelerated growth. 1