Plans are also in place encourage mines, industries and trade In order to deal with the COVID-19 impact on the economy and enhance economic growth, the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MoEA) will be leading efforts to remove various red tape, regulatory and licensing requirements to make it much faster and …

A major worry for the Financial Institutions (FIs) is its Non Performing Loans (NPLs) quite a few of which was even before the COVID-19 pandemic due to an economic slowdown, and now set to be worse when the loan deferral period is over in June 2021. The NPLs are also …

The Health Minister said that when it comes to Thimphu they have a general risk assessment criterion which looks at population, mobility, positive cases and containment measures. She said that of the four criteria Thimphu already fulfills three of them. Thimphu has high population with around 150,000 people all living …

The Private Sector Task Force for COVID-19 has proposed the reduction of taxes as one way to help spur new investments and growth and potentially get in new FDI. The idea behind reduction in taxes is that the government anyhow would not get any revenue if there is no income …

The biggest hit of COVID-19 has been taken by the private sector and so the Private Sector Task Force for COVID-19 which has already played an important role in giving private sector feedback for Phase Two of the relief measures, quite a few of which was accepted and adopted, is …

FIAB head not in favour of collateral free loans or lowering of loan interest rates A major concern of the private sector and to an extent the Financial Institutions (FIs) has been the availability of liquidity or money to lend out so that economic activities can continue or start in …

The understanding so far has been that only the southern border areas are high risk zones but the Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said it covers the other areas adjacent to the border too. He said all the inhabitants adjacent to the international boundary will be considered high risk and …

More budget to be allocated for both in the 5-year plan and annual budget along with reforms One of the major outcomes of the COVID-19 crisis is that the government is planning major investments and far reaching changes and reforms in Education and Health.  Lyonchhen Dr Lotay Tshering said, “For …

The PM says that after the Coronavirus the next biggest worry is unemployment With the economy taking a series of continuous hits from the stoppage of tourism in March, with the detection of the first case, to the recent lockdown, the Prime Minister has now outlined a four-point formula to …

Among the biggest learnings of the recent national lockdown, one was firstly on how to do lockdowns in the future to minimize the economic cost and inconvenience and secondly to prevent repeated and long national lockdowns. Prime Minister Dr Lotay Tshering said there are a lot of invaluable lessons learnt …