The Bhutanese Leading the way.
Following the visit of the two parents’ representatives, two officials from Ministry of Labour and Human Resources (MoLHR) and one official from Bhutan Development Bank Limited (BDBL) reached Japan on 11th April.
While the visit of the parents’ representative was to assess the ground reality of Bhutanese youths in Japan, the visit of the officials according to the labour minister Lyonpo Ugyen Dorji, is focused on the loan deferment process. “Since loan deferment is the solution we are providing at our best capacity, we’ve sent the official from the bank too”.
The officials will be meeting with the students in respective language schools all across Japan and will be meeting with all who are currently studying and those who graduated.
While the seventeen-day visit is mainly focused on the process of loan deferment, Lyonpo said the officials might also take an opportunity to interact with the students to discuss on some pertinent issues.
Lyonpo said he’ll also join a team of government officials for visit to Japan at an appropriate time. The government initially planned to send its fact-finding team to Japan earlier this year which, however, was withheld.
The committee lawyer Ngawang Tobgay said that while the visit is mainly focused on the loan deferment, the expectation is set on making it clear to the students on how much they have to pay at the end. “The main concern is that if the students will ever be able to get jobs that has the capacity to repay the loan and most importantly, who will be providing the job,” he questioned.
“We hope that it will be cleared if the solution of loan deferment is really a benefit to them or just a short term solution”.
The officials meeting with the students will end on the 27th of this month.
