The Bhutanese Leading the way.
During a 10-day visit to the United States of America (USA), Lyonchhen Tshering Tobgay visited the internet company, Google, where he toured the company campus and met with the senior members.
In a press conference held yester¬day in Thimphu, Lyonchhen said he was able to study the modern set up of the company and discussed how to enhance connectivity in Bhutan and other issues. “We saw how employees work and plan for their work and also seen fancy modern offices. Google has very interesting person, Jolly Wood, a good fellow, his main purpose is to ensure the mental well being of the employees, he uses yoga, meditation and spiritually to keep employees in balance,” Lyonchhen said.
PM said he explored the possibil¬ity of receiving Google investments in Bhutan for return of carbon credits as Google is committed to reducing the carbon foot print by helping farm¬ers. The other area of discussion was whether Google would be interested to opening data centers in Bhutan.
Lyonchhen also visited the online social networking service company, Facebook, and met with the chief op¬erating officer and asked about the possibility of opening data centers in Bhutan.
PM visited the American company that designs, manufactures, and sells electric cars, Tesla Motors, to see how sustainable cars are produced. He said the chances of producing and manu¬facturing sustainable cars in Bhutan is very difficult as it is extremely capital intensive.
PM also visited two new start-up companies, one making micro and mini hydro power turbine, also called hydro engines. He said if such a technology works then Bhutan would be an auto¬matic hub of manufacture, use and ex-port of such machines and other start-up. “We are still exploring the possibility
of taking telemedicine, using drowns to expand telemedicine to drop from hospitals to Basic Health Unit (BHU) and pick up blood samples from BHU’s to hospitals,” said PM.
During his visit, Ms.Nisha Desai Biswal, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs called on Lyonchhen. He also met with Dr. Jim Yong Kim, President of World Bank and Mr.Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of United Nations.
In his various interactions, Lyonch¬hen talked about Bhutan’s democratic process and the various socio-econom¬ic challenges that it was confronted with as a developing country under-going rapid change. Lyonchhen ex¬plained the process of Bhutan’s demo¬cratic transition that took place over three decades of development un¬der the guidance of His Majesty the Fourth Druk Gyalpo and the eventual introduction of democracy under the guidance of His Majesty the King in 2008against the will of the people.
He emphasized that through the successive efforts of the Monarchs, Bhutan today was a full-fledged de-mocracy, with an adopted constitu-tion and the necessary institutions in place. Lyonchhen highlighted that His Majesty the King continues to serves as an inspiration and conscience for the Royal Government to work in the best interest of the country and people.
