The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Studying the loopholes in the financial sector, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) and the Financial Institutions (FIs) have concurred to establish a self-sustaining Financial Institutions Training Institute (FITI) for the FIs of Bhutan.
This institute, which could be an efficient financial intermediate, is the first of its kind in the country that is said to open up by 2014.
Owing to lack of expertise in certain financial areas and with the pace the Bhutanese economy is growing, attention towards specific knowledge gaps have been identified.
These gaps require work, and the areas needed to be covered is in the area of banking, insurance, securities, and pension amongst others, according to the RMA if these breaches are not addressed then it is most likely that the gaps will widen.
The establishment of a high-quality in-country FITI is seen as an effective measure.
This establishment, which will not only upgrade the skill levels of their respective employees, but, it will also thrive on knowledge on self sustaining basis in the domestic market.
The Examining Officer of RMA Tshering Dhendup said, the main purpose of the institute is to provide training to the employees of the financial institution including other relevant sectors by bringing in experts from other reputed training institutions from countries abroad.
He added, some selected national experts in the field of banking, insurance, finance etc will also be roped in.
On the training and programs, Tshering Dhendup said that at the initial stage the training is targeted only to the FIs and its related topics like , finance, insurance, securities, banking , pension , corporate governance, money laundering , credit appraisal etc.
He said in future the policy committee, which is the board of the FITI might further look into expanding its training programs. However, the trainings will not come free of cost because in order to self-sustain, a source of revenue will have to come from the tuition or training fee charged to the participants.
This institute will be constructed on a 16.50 decimal land situated behind the National Pension and Provident Fund (NPPF) residential colony near Youth Development Fund, Changangkha.
After completion of construction, the FITI building will become a permanent and self-sustaining entity. At the moment, this institute is under the RMA.
Its financing will be governed from the revenue generated from tuition and training fees charged to employees of the financial institutions as well as equity stakes in the FITI taken by FIs.
The institute will be managed by a set of permanent staff once the structure is complete.
The FITI is currently owned by the following RMA, Bank of Bhutan (BoB), Bhutan National Bank (BNB), Druk Punjab National Bank (DPNB), NPPF, Royal Insurance Corporation of Bhutan Ltd. (RIBCL), Bhutan Development Bank Ltd. (BDBL), Bhutan Insurance Ltd. (BIL), and T bank.
The construction committee consisting of members from RMA, BNBL, RICBL, Thimphu Thomde, and the Ministry of Works and Human Settlement are deciding on the capacity, but, as far as the building is concerned, it would be an institution with all the required facility that a standard training institute should have.
Registered consultancy firms in Bhutan have already been invited for Expression of Interest to provide the consulting services including architectural planning, designing and development, specification, cost estimation, tendering, work supervision, bill verification etc, till completion of the project.
The firms will also have to provide specification, cost estimation, tendering, work supervision, and bill verification amongst others, till completion of the project.
Thereafter, the construction committee members will be shortlisting the firms and the RFP will be floated in accordance to it.
The construction of the building is scheduled by October or November this year, and since this being a projected target it is yet to be finalized by the board of the FITI.
The exact budget allocated is not discussed but the funding will be done by the current owners of the FITI.
Another resource wasting proposal…….common guys…..why not instead collaborate with RIM which has lots of experiences in domestic business and finances……
Instead of the training institute construction do the following.1.
Change the govenor and recruit someone who atleast has a masters degree. 2.Change the second class graduate staff. 3. Change the governane struture and let the govenor report to the board. 4. Put senior people in the board. 5. Monitor the bank properly so that clients cant buy prados and land cruisers from inflated housing loans. 6. Dont let banks declare unreasonable bonus to thier staff. 7 Stop bank staffs from helping their relatives to avail loans not supported by collateral. 8, Finally RMA govenor and dep govenors- learn to listen to others and come out of the tight cocoon of amatuer knowledge u all are currently confined in
this is insane! DPT wants to send people back to villages (theoritically assumed to ease urban difficulty) and government approves developments and insists it should be located in Thimphu.
This self contradictory character is characterstic of unwitty mouth of DPT, do hell with FITI’s institute comming up in Thimphu because it is bound to further congest the population there.
PDP is not good either, going through Tshering Tobgay’s blog at one post he argues the waste of money by advertizing the tender quotation for Plaque for 350 beded hospital, other he says the selection media advisor for DPT is arbitary meaning, ‘without advertizing’.
So…… If any two points expressed by same person or party contradict believe me some maturity is required.
Open corruption and big thing hidden here. People will get into riots this time. RIM is more than sufficient but you know what someone close to JYT has this freaking conspiracy for making himself the boss of this so called FITI. There will hardly be any takers there. waste of gov . money.
What will the existing private institutions do? There r competent ones like IMS, Athang, RIM who can deliver given the curriculum.
RMA can kill 2 birds if outsourced.
The RMA, DHI and Banks have now all ganged up into competing and ousting the Bhutanese public and private entrepreneurs out of the Bhutanese markets for a long starvation fiesta. I wish them all the luck! With all the authority and the national resources under their direct control, I do not see any reasons why they cannot succeed in their mission. I fully endorse the views as expressed by these few sensible writers here. This mega project to me would be a BIG waste of our scarce resources. This indicates that in their ardent drives into proving a point to the Bhutanese public on why as the Nation’s investment arm – under the total freedom clause, how they can play with the national resources at their whims?
On one hand, the Bhutanese public are hard pushed into a tight corner even for constructing a simple dwelling house and buying a small car on loans for the family as this might put the nation to high degree rupee risk, and on the other hand, we find these extravagant poorly researched projects getting easy national approvals without a slightest hiccups or concern for the rupee shortage issue. Sometimes, I feel this is a strange world with heavy artificialities and a double standards ridden unreliable corporate Bhutan in the making.
This is the first corporate Bhutan’s rupee saving project which in time would provide another headache for the Bhutanese public long after these shortsighted planners and the current bosses are gone.