The Bhutanese Leading the way.
The Prime Minister Dasho Tshering Tobgay has been making a number of foreign visits in the last few months to multiple countries with the latest being Thailand.
The Prime Minister said that there are three purposes for the visit.
He said the first is to reconnect and nurture Bhutan’s friendly relations with friendly countries and also with international agencies. The PM said he went to India twice , to Thailand, visited the USA and will be visiting Singapore soon.
The PM said he also met with agencies like the UN, FAO, WFP and other developmental partners.
He said the second aim is to seek financing for developmental programs and here India has been especially important with what they have given for the 13th Plan (85 bn), ESP (15 bn) and in hydropower.
He said they are also discussing about aid with other countries and developmental partners like EU, Japan, UN system etc.
Lyonchhen said the third aim is to seek investment in the country and particularly for the Gelephu Mindfulness City project.
“There is a lot of interest in Bhutan but we have to get our act together.”
He said he is very happy in the meetings with agencies and businesses and while there is an interest to invest in Bhutan in general there is even more interest in the GMC.
He said the interest is genuine and will be backed up with investments.
Apart from GMC he said there is a lot of interest in energy and the potential of renewable energy and already a lot of investments in the hydro sector is happening.
Lyonchhen said that there is a lot of interest in computing power, data centers, tourism and hospitality, education, medicine and healthcare.
When asked what would be different from the same topics and policies discussed in the past three governments the PM said that while he does not know about other past governments the second government was very interested and committed in improving the business environment and getting investments and they exceeded their own expectations.
He said on FDI while they were open they could not get a lot as the approach was very conservative back then but given the situation now with the number of youths heading outside and unemployment, steps will be taken to go more aggressively after FDI, improve the business environment and stimulate the economy.
Lyonchhen said the difference now is that they are courting FDI and being more pro-active in reaching out.
The PM said that there is interest in the agro sector and education in general but while the government will not be overly cautious and conservative it will not be reckless too.
Lyonchhen said apart from the above Bhutan’s natural resources will be used to provide a supply chain for GMC like pre-designed stones, pre-engineered Timber, laminated timber etc.
The PM said that the Economic Development Board headed by him has pushed through a lot of changes in terms of changing or doing away with regulations that are constraints to doing business in Bhutan.
He said the changes will be carried out by the respective agencies and a few examples are in terms of making it easier to get labour, land and licensing approvals from the government. The PM said there will be major changes also coming to the FDI policy.
