Economy – Page 4 – Tshering Tobgay

Investing in Bhutan

December 1, 2009Economy, Government

During Question Hour today, I asked the Minister for Economic Affairs: Newspapers recently reported that 100% foreign ownership of hotels is allowed for foreign direct investments above US$ 200,000. Please explain why the minimum is fixed at US$ 200,000. I was basically concerned that the minimum investment required to qualify for 100% foreign ownership of hotels was too low. I reported that many Bhutanese have already demonstrated that they can build and operate hotels that cost many times more than US$ 200,000. And that, while foreign investors should be encouraged, policies should ensure that opportunities are not taken away…

Gifted Sonam

November 11, 2009Economy, Monarchy

Ever so often, a reader will leave a comment that is much more powerful and important than the original entry. I am delighted every time that happens. Someone called “Invisible” left such a comment to my last entry, “Farmhouse lunch.” The comment is insightful, thought provoking, and inspiring. So, if you haven’t already read Invisible’s response about SMEs and jobs for the “invisible people”, I encourage you to do so. “If you ‘genuinely’ believed in Aum Sonam, enjoyed her lunch, and saw a business potential in it…” advised Invisible, “…let it give you inspiration, reason, and energy to drive…

Farmhouse lunch

November 8, 2009Economy, People

We had lunch today at Aum Sonam’s house. Aum Sonam, who was a member of the last National Assembly before the introduction of parliamentary democracy, served us a sumptuous meal of kharang, sikam, aima datsi, mushrooms, farm eggs, cottage cheese and papaya. I enjoyed Aum Sonam’s cooking thoroughly. It was clean, wholesome and traditional. So I asked her if she would be willing to make lunch for other travelers between Bumthang and Mongar or Trashigang. Her answer was “yes!” quickly qualified by “but they should call me first”. Her farmhouse is located among Thidanbi’s bucolic paddy fields about five…

Misleading numbers

November 6, 2009Economy

The other day Kuensel reported that: Bhutan’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth slumped to one of its lowest at 5 percent in 2008 despite the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa’s target of achieving a 9 percent growth rate annually. To this Dr Saamdu Chetri, the head of good governance section in the cabinet secretariat and DPT party member, was quoted as saying: “With inflation going up to 9.2 percent and a global recession, a growth rate of five percent is still an achievement.” There’s no doubt that the recent global recession would have constrained economic growth. So there could be some…

Consulting tourists

November 5, 2009Economy, Government

So the government has accepted and decided to implement McKinsey’s recommendations for the tourism sector. And it seems like we are paying a lot of money – almost 10 million dollars – to a consulting firm to tell us what we already know. Attracting high end visitors, promoting ecotourism, making Bhutan a destination for international meetings, easing ticketing, simplifying visa procedures, improving hotels, domestic air services, developing infrastructure, investing in marketing … these are more or less the same recommendations that a series of earlier consultants have made. More importantly, they are the same ones that ABTO and tour…

High value

October 26, 2009Economy25 Comments

“Magic!” is how tourists often describe their visits to Bhutan. Druk Air, dzongs, monasteries, farm houses, forests, gho and kira, red rice, mask dances, traffic policemen, archery, Mahayana, GNH, the people … anything and everything Bhutanese completely captivates the visitor. What tourists also love is the exclusiveness of a visit to Bhutan. So it’s no wonder that, despite the global recession, the tourism industry has continued to perform well. But there is one big danger. McKinsey. The international consulting firm has already recommended increasing tourist arrivals to about 250,000 a year within three to five years. That’s five times…

Be Somebody!

September 26, 2009Economy, Youth9 Comments

The National Graduate Orientation Programme is over. And 1,300 graduates have now entered the workforce. I didn’t get to congratulate them. So I’ve decided to write about what I would have talked about had I been given the opportunity to meet them. First, I would have talked about employment. Then I would have talked about the role of the opposition. ……………………………………………………………………………………..........................................................................................………. Be somebody! Sound familiar? Be somebody! Remember this hand signal? Clenched fist, thumb upright? Yes, of course you do. It’s from the career counseling tour in 2002, seven years ago. Yes, seven years ago – I can’t believe…

Returning graduates

September 8, 2009Economy, Employment, Youth8 Comments

Since the start of planned modern development in our country, one of our biggest constraints to progress has been the consistent shortage of human resources. We simply did not have enough skilled and qualified people required to initiate and sustain development. So when our students studying in India and beyond returned home after they graduated, we welcomed them back eagerly. And we were proud of the fact that they – almost every single one of them – chose to return home instead of working abroad. Not any more. Recently, 100 graduates completed a month-long training at Infosys. 37 of…

Targeting the rain

August 21, 2009Culture, Economy

Yangphel Archery’s second knockout round began today. The 14 winning teams and 10 “joker” teams from this round will make it to the quarter finals. And the 8 winners plus one joker from the quarterfinals will play the semifinals. The tournament began on 4th July. And during the last seven weeks 182 matches were played. But, guess what, not a single match was postponed. The weather has held up remarkably well. For the archers, that is; not our farmers who, at this time of the year, need rain. So today, when I congratulated Tshewang Rinchen, the tournament’s secretary general,…

Real money

August 11, 2009Economy

Recently, on the 9th of August, Kuensel published a story about the Rs. 5 billion that our central bank had borrowed in 2008 to meet the rupee requirements in the country. On that overdraft, our central bank is pays more than Rs. 500,000 every day on interest alone. That same story also informed us that the government total rupee debt with India stands at Rs. 22 billion, Rs 17 billion of which is for hydropower projects. The next day, on the 10th of August, Kuensel ran an editorial telling us that we need to expand our economy – to…

About measures and incentives

July 27, 2009Economy

Last week, the government announced that they “…will be introducing measures to expand the revenue base.” And, that they are “…also considering fiscal incentives to stimulate the private sector growth…” These announcements were made, quietly, in the government’s National Budget for 2009-10. But, the budget report offered no details. These are significant financial policies. So, our government should elaborate what “measures” and “incentives” our people can expect during the coming year.

Farmers’ produce

July 25, 2009Economy, Villages

Our economy grew by 8.1% last year. That’s not the 9% growth per year promised by DPT. But, given all that happened in those 12 months, from a host of national celebrations to the global financial crisis, 8.1 is really not too bad. The share of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors to our GDP are 16%, 45% and 36% respectively. And, during the past year, the primary, or agriculture, sector grew by 1.7%; the secondary, or industry, sector grew by 7.5%; and the tertiary, or service, sector grew by 12.1%. These figures were given to the National Assembly…

Our debt

July 23, 2009Economy, Government

Yesterday, the Finance Minister reported that Bhutan’s total debt outstanding is Nu 35,109.3 million. That’s about 56.7% of our GDP. In other words, every citizen owes Nu 64,000 of that debt. Or, assuming the average family has five members, every family would owe Nu 320,000. The good news is that most of that debt – about 61 per cent – consists of hydropower construction loans. These loans, we are told, will pay for themselves, and generate huge revenues for the government. Good. But, let’s not completely ignore the risks. An overdependence on one source of revenue – in this…

In total darkness

July 21, 2009Economy

We'll be up by five tomorrow morning, to take in the total eclipse of the sun from Kuenselphodrang. Many of my neighbours – indeed, many Bhutanese – will also enjoy this very rare natural phenomenon when the moon completely blocks out the sun. Bhutan, after all, falls bang on the path of the total eclipse. But you won’t find many tourists. We didn’t market the occasion. The heavens have blessed Bhutan with the longest total eclipse, of about three minutes, in the 21st century. And we have not used it to boost tourism. The Finance Minister reported today that,…

World class advice

July 17, 2009Economy

Jack recently posted a comment in “Double vision” asking for my “…opinion regarding the government paying USD 9.1m to a global management consultancy firm, McKinsey and company”. I’m afraid that I know very little about “Accelerating Bhutan’s Economic Development”, the project that McKinsey will implement. And, the little I know comes from what Kuensel had reported a few days ago. The project must be interesting. And exciting. So, I’m already looking forward to learning more about it. But let’s look at what we know. In “Really hard business”, we talked about how difficult it was to do business in…