The Bhutanese Leading the way.
More details on economic activities, potential investors and TER
As a part of the Royal Visit to Australia, the Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) CEO, Mun Leong Liew, and his team delivered a presentation on the GMC Master Plan, and discussed how the Bhutanese living abroad could contribute to the project.
A source said that even before the announcement, a lot of the Bhutanese diaspora in Australia asked how they can be a part of the GMC project, in terms of jobs, investments, etc.
Therefore, almost as a response, the GMC team came up with the ‘GMC Nation Building Bond’ where expatriate Bhutanese, whether in Australia or any other part of the world, can buy the bond, as an investment, in the GMC project.
The bond is likely to be for 10 years, similar to the Druk Green Power Corporation (DGPC) Bond. The coupon rate could be 10 percent for those who want it in Ngultrum, and 4 percent for those who want the returns in foreign currency, however, the rate is not finalized yet.
The bond planned to be launched in another two weeks can be purchased from the ORO Bank.
This may leave those in Bhutan thinking about how they can invest in the GMC project. Talks are that there will a Bond for Bhutanese in Bhutan to invest in as well.
The GMC team held many rounds of meetings after receiving a lot of interest while in Australia. One of the meetings was with the Bhutanese business community in Australia and they asked how they can help or sign on to the GMC project.
The source said that while the reaction to the GMC has been very encouraging, the aim for the GMC team now is to convert that interest into actual investments too. The team is expected to do campaigns for two more weeks.
To encourage investments, the plan is not just to have big bonds of 10,000 or 5,000 dollars but also smaller one of 100 or 200 dollars per month which is more palatable for smaller investors.
More details on GMC economic clusters
This paper, after the Bhutan Innovation Forum (BIF), sent some questions to the GMC team to get more details on the economic activities in the GMC.
The BIF made it clear that there are 7 types of businesses and institutions at the GMC; Spiritual, Health and Wellness, Education and Knowledge, Agriculture-Tech and Forestry, Green Energy and Tech, Finance and Digital Assets and Aviation and Logistics.
The paper inquired about the current level of each one regarding structure, regulations, and finance.
The GMC team replied saying, “Our approach to development of the key economic clusters has been a combination of top-down and bottom-up: strategic prospective planning guided by domain experts, as well as pragmatic development guided by prospective businesses looking to operate in the GMC.”
In all of these different clusters, GMC is engaging with prospective partners from across the spectrum, ranging from top global institutions to startups both international and local.
Some of these engagements are more advanced than others, e.g. Reliance and DHI announced a joint venture based in GMC, to expand green energy production in the country.
“We are making good progress in discussions with other parties, and look forward to making more announcements in the near term,” said the GMC team.
For instance, in the Health and Wellness cluster, they have a cluster vision of the GMC as a City for Holistic Health and Longevity, and are working to upgrade the public system and facilities to enable that.
“We are also working with many experts from top healthcare systems, globally, to bring in destination hospitals and clinics that people would travel for. Activities include co-creating destination health and wellness programs, R&D and facilities that leverage Bhutan’s and GMC’s competitive strengths in a range of thematic areas ranging from mental health and performance, health span and longevity, aesthetics and fertility.”
In education, the vision of GMC is as the City of Mindful Learning, a Living Lab for receiving, generating and applying knowledge, with a built environment, culture and policies that encourage learning.
GMC team said, “We are developing this cluster with a combination of international partners, including some of the top schools from Europe, Australia and Singapore, as well as growing our own local offerings into world-class, such as with the Royal Academy.”
The team said the same is true in all other sectors.
Discussions are underway with companies from the Nordic countries and the United States to expand their presence in Bhutan, aiming to provide agricultural technology and tech-enabled solutions. These initiatives are expected to boost the scaling and distribution of Bhutan’s high-value agricultural products
In green energy and digital industries, they are working with multiple players, from supply to offtake to connectivity to grow and supply green high-performance computing and trusted storage.
In wealth management, they are talking with family offices who share the vision of mindful prosperity and being a gateway to South Asia and the values of investing mindfully and ethically.
“We have several experts from Changi Airport Group in Singapore, consistently ranked one of the top airport hubs in the world, to help grow our airport and logistics cluster,” the GMC team shared.
The plan is to upgrade and construct new tourism facilities in GMC, including high quality safaris with a strong conservation focus. The developments will be phased and calibrated according to market readiness and investment.
Owing to the diversity of sectors, as well the pioneering nature of investments in GMC, the team is working with prospective partners in a highly personalized manner to co-create both business opportunities and address their specific needs to enable mutual success.
On regulations, they said, “As such, while we have internal benchmarks of internationally competitive conditions, there is not currently a set of broadly applicable structural or regulatory conditions that we are disclosing.”
On financing, they said, “We are prioritizing raising independent financing via a variety of structures.”
More details on TER
One of the big reveals during BIF was the TER currency for GMC, which will be based on the blockchain, as the blockchain is transparent, and you can see exactly where the money is at any point. It’s cheaper and it’s more efficient as well.
The new currency, TER, will be backed fully by physical gold which imposes strong monetary discipline on GMC, which cannot be a money printer, and so they have to be very prudent and disciplined.
The Bhutanese sent some questions around TER to the GMC team.
In terms of where the gold will come for TER, the team said that the gold for TER will be obtained from internationally recognized and reputable gold refiners.
On how TER will use blockchain technology, and if it will be a digital currency, the team said TER is a digital currency and will be minted on blockchain. TER will be held in digital wallets and can be transferred on the blockchain.
When asked if TER will replace the Ngultrum, the team said TER is meant to be a digital currency that can be used in GMC in parallel with the Ngultrum.
When asked if TER will have a physical form, the team replied saying it will only exist in digital form. There will not be any physical cash or coinage for TER.
On the question of how the financial system will be based on the Abu Dhabi system and what other systems will be used the team said GMC’s regulatory framework for financial services (including digital assets) will directly apply Abu Dhabi Global Market’s (ADGM) financial services regulations and rules, as these are comprehensive, robust, and risk-proportionate.
In addition, ADGM’s financial services regulatory framework caters to the regulation of digital assets – an area which GMC is focused on developing – in a clear, robust and progressive manner that addresses the unique technical aspects of blockchain technology.
Airport
The paper asked the GMC team about the timeline for the international airport at Gelephu.
Here, they replied saying the groundbreaking for runway extension has already taken place, and so the current target is to commence works by next year, with planned completion within five years.
