The Prime Minister in his state of the nation address has outlined the largescale migration of the last few years as the biggest challenge to Bhutan’s economy and an existential threat.
The PM is correct as documented in this paper’s detailed coverage of the mass migration to Australia over the last two years, and its major impacts on the Bhutanese economy from empty shops to now empty apartments.
The latest impact of migration and a slow economy is banks being unable to auction land and equipment including prime real estate in Thimphu as tenants dry up.
This should set alarm bells ringing as anything that impacts the health of banks can turn into a monetary and then economic crisis.
There are many long term economic projects planned from hydro projects to the Gelephu Mindfulness City, but it will take time for their impact to be felt.
The need of the hour is aggressive and far reaching policy changes and not a piecemeal approach.
With flats and shops emptying out in Thimphu it may be time to change our immigration policy to allow a select group of foreigners to stay as long-term residents here. They would take the apartments and buy at local businesses.
We need to be much more aggressive in our FDI policy and remove all cross cutting restrictions. For example, if we want a real international school in Bhutan we cannot expect foreigners to wear Gho and Kira in school or have their parents pay SDF.
On the tourism front it is time to also make drastic changes like making the nearly dead border regions SDF free.
We may also have to unlock mineral wealth that we have hesitated to touch before due to environmental concerns.
Red tape will need to be aggressively cut and government agencies and civil servants should be rewarded for getting in more investments.
It is also time to crack down on education consultancies selling untrue dreams.
There is no time to lose.
Action is the foundational key to all success.
Pablo Picasso