CAIRO – Despite containing 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, Africa has been a net food importer for decades. According to the most recent estimates, food imports are the biggest budget item for many countries across the continent. Amid surging food prices and an appreciating US dollar, Africa’s food bill has …

One of the depressing things about reading the annual RAA report is not just the findings, but how the findings seem to repeat over the years and quite frequently the agencies and at times even the characters. There is almost a Déjà vu feeling about the whole thing and you …

LONDON – The dust has now settled after the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt, but there are still many unanswered questions about how to finance emissions reductions and adaptation. The world will not avoid dangerous levels of climate change without a significant increase in investment in developing …

In 2008 soon after MPs were elected to their posts they started getting calls from constituents requesting for voucher recharges and many complied. It was from then that our political thinking and culture took a very wrong turn with people expecting soelra and gifts from politicians for their votes. The …

LONDON – Companies have long had to manage “key person risk,” even taking out insurance against the possibility of losing top executives through death, illness, or injury. But the collapse of the crypto exchange FTX, Meta’s plummeting share price, and the chaos at Twitter following its takeover by Elon Musk suggest that “key people” can pose …

One key aspect of the recent Royal Address in the Parliament was that despite a lot of budget and time spent in the past to address various issues facing the nation, the outcome was not satisfactory. The address in essence brought out the repeated failures of the governance system and …

The Property Tax Bill is a long due up gradation of the land and property taxes stuck since 1992. However, what does not make sense in this bill is the provision to transfer the local land and property taxes collected so far in local government CD accounts into the central …

In the last year of any elected government, they normally stay a mile away from any controversial decisions or legislations that would impact its political prospects. The most controversial of these are tax legislations that increases taxes. However, almost counterintuitively this government has already introduced two major tax legislations that …

Earlier in April this year, the former Dzongda and JDWNRH President, Lhab Dorji, stabbed and assaulted an ACC Director while his family members assaulted an ACC Commissioner in the Supreme Court premises. The incident was a massive security failure and so it is good that following the incident the RBP …

I’m not a banker, but I’m surprised by the patent lack of understanding displayed by FM Lyonpo regarding the lifting of moratorium on CSI and BDBL.   I read recently a notice by the RMA clarifying the underlying reason and rationale for the imposition of the moratorium in the first place.  …