The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Minister for Economic Affairs, Loknath Sharma, informed that the government shall not have any more State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) in the country, and this is being done to provide equal opportunities to both the SOEs and private sector.
Lyonpo said this as a response to question raised by the Member of Parliament (MP) from Bomdeyling- Jamkhar constituency during the question and answer session in the National Assembly.
The MP said that with the increasing number of SOEs in the country, private shopkeepers are disappointed as they have to compete with SOEs.
He argued that private shopkeepers should be given the opportunity to do a business and government should, in fact, must understand the situation of private shopkeepers and support them.
He asked on the measures taken by the government to support private shopkeepers.
Lyonpo Loknath Sharma said, “Given the situation, not just private shopkeepers, but I am also not happy about it.”
He said that private sector is very important and the government and private sector must work together as partners. He said as the number of SOEs increases in the country, the opportunities for private sector reduces as the private sector cannot compete with SOEs.
He said, “The SOEs were established in the country with the intention to create more job opportunities, but in today’s scenario, there are so many SOEs and the government does not intend to establish any new SOEs as we firmly believe in engaging private sector to diversify our economy.”
“The government has reviewed SOEs and is studying the role of SOEs and is trying to reform it. The ministry is also looking into the possibility of merging or inviting Public Private Partnership model. Other strategy is not to allow retail business to SOEs, and we have also formed Public Sector Development Committee, and BCCI is seriously working into the role SOEs too as a reform agenda. Above all, we are also done with the competition policy which will provide equal platform to the private sector and SOEs,” he added.
