Tshering Tobgay

Transforming our towns

February 14, 2009Towns

Last week, Bhutan Times reported that a model town will be built in Denchi, Pema Gatshel (A new town like no other; Bhutan Times; 11 February – I couldn’t find the article on BT’s unfriendly website, so please bear with the numerous quotations).The article quoted our prime minister as announcing that Denchi “… will be a dream town structurally planned and aesthetically beautiful with all aspects of urbanity…” And that it “… will have facilities not incorporated in other towns like a town hall, a park, a promenade, a unique modern dzong and banking and postal services.”Very good.But our…

Working online … securely

February 14, 2009Government

Okay, I’m impatient. I wish we’d make better and quicker use of ICT. I wish we’d use the decades of hard work and zillions of dollars that others have invested to leapfrog to the frontiers of ICT.But I should also wish that we learn from their mistakes.A close friend of mine tells me that filing taxes and declaring assets online is dangerous stuff. She warns me that financial information, such as bank accounts and personal identification, that is sent online, especially as email attachments, can easily be intercepted and misused. And that “identity theft” and stealing other people’s money…

Working online

February 13, 2009Government

I’ve filed my PIT returns electronically. It’s quite easy: go to the MOF website; download the electronic form, an excel file; complete the form; and submit it as an email attachment. The only cumbersome part is sending the supporting documents – TDS certificates, proof of education expenses, donation receipts and the like must be scanned and sent as email attachments.The entire process should not take more than two hours. If you have trouble, telephone them. The officials are polite, patient and helpful.I learned that, so far, only 600 of the 5500 PIT returns were filed electronically. That's barely 11%…

Funny money?

February 12, 2009Economy4 Comments

For over a decade now, every time I’ve fueled up in Phuentsholing, I’ve asked the petrol pump cashier to exchange various amounts of Ngultrums for Indian Rupees. I’ve had little problems changing small amounts, like Nu 500. But for larger amounts, say Nu 5000, it would sometimes get difficult to change my money. I’ve rarely needed the Indian Rupees for my stay in Phuentsholing, yet I’ve made it a point to request for the informal currency exchange every time I visit our border town. I’ve developed this odd tradition to give me a very rough idea of the state…

Interpreting our Constitution

February 11, 2009Legislature

“WE, the people of Bhutan ... do hereby ordain and adopt this Constitution for the Kingdom of Bhutan ...” proclaims the preamble of our constitution. And Article 1 declares that “This Constitution is the supreme law of the State.” And that “The Supreme Court shall be the guardian of this Constitution and the final authority on its interpretation”.If legal interpretation of the Constitution was needed it should have been provided by the Royal Courts of Justice which includes the Supreme Court, the High Court, Dzongkhag Courts and Dungkhag Courts. The Supreme Court has the final authority on the interpretation…

Transforming our villages

February 10, 2009Economy, Villages

I am delighted that the agriculture minister is traveling to our dzongkhags to discuss the 10th Plan and to identify viable products that our villagers can make (read Taking the 10th plan to the people). If villagers and local leaders are fully involved in the process and genuinely accept his idea, our agriculture minister could bring about a true and sustained transformation of our villages. Well done. The following article, reproduced from the PDP manifesto, talks about how the One Village One Product movement could transform villages in Bhutan: Ohita is a small village in Japan’s southernmost island of…

How (not) to lift the meat ban

February 9, 2009Democracy, Legislature

Well done, Bhutan Observer, for continuing the debate on the proposed amendment the Livestock Act 2001 (read their articles Meat ban debate and Killing ceases when eating stops).I say “proposed amendment” because the proposal to lift the ban on selling meat products during the 1st and 4th months of our traditional calendar has not completed the constitutional process. So it is not yet law.To become law, Article 13.1 of the Constitution requires that “A Bill passed by Parliament shall come into force upon Assent of the Druk Gyalpo”. And Royal Assent has not been granted so far. In fact,…

Is the GDP in our GNH?

February 7, 2009Economy

Here’s some good news from the RMA: our GDP, which is about Nu 59 billion, grew by 21.4% in 2007 and increased per capita GDP to US$ 1900. Not bad. We now have the highest GDP per person in South Asia. But what does this mean?Do you contribute your share to the GDP? If you do, you would have contributed US$ 1900 worth of goods or services to the economy. And if you do that, you would earn US$ 1900 in one year. Now US$ 1900 is roughly Nu 95,000 which is about Nu 7,900 a month. Do you…

Official business

February 6, 2009Economy

I’m humbled by the quality of the responses to my last entry – they are insightful, meaningful and educative. And every one of them shows deep concern over how difficult it is to do business in our country. But your responses scared me. I suddenly realized that Doing Business ranking for Bhutan may be terribly inaccurate. Why? Because Doing Business measures regulations and procedures that affect business activity, regardless of how well or poorly the regulations are applied. Your responses all say the same things in various ways: that regulations are not our biggest constraint to doing business; that…

Getting down to business

February 4, 2009Economy11 Comments

Everywhere I look I see people, thousands of them, buying and selling goods and services. It must be easy to do business in Thailand. In fact it is: Doing Business 2009 ranks Thailand 13th out of the 181 economies that the World Bank studied. Doing Business investigates government regulations that affect the following 10 aspects of business activity: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing a business. Bhutan, as we know very well, is ranked 124 (read Doing business isn't easy anywhere).…

Increasing voluntary contributions

February 2, 2009Political parties

The election commission’s decision to increase the voluntary contribution ceiling to political parties is hazardous to the health of our fledgling democracy (read ECB’s notification).It’s hazardous because increasing the amount that members can contribute will strengthen the two existing parties, and place any future party at a big disadvantage. It’s hazardous because increasing the voluntary contribution ceiling by 500% to Nu 500,000 per member per year disproportionately favors one party – the ruling party, DPT, which also enjoys an overwhelming majority. To be sure, even a ceiling of Nu 100,000 favours DPT more than PDP, but that ceiling was…

Happy world?

January 31, 2009Economy

20th August 1987. It was getting dark. I’d reached my university in Pittsburgh earlier that day. I fought to control my jetlag and hide my culture shock. I was tired and hungry.So I made my way to a MacDonald’s and timidly requested for the set meal that offered a cheese burger, fries and coke. The lady taking my order tried to protest. But I respectfully insisted that that’s what I’d have…I was too nervous and shy to construct a full meal by ordering a la carte.I understood what the fuss was about as soon as my food arrived. It…

Stayin’ online

January 30, 2009Economy

It happened again. Druknet was down this morning. It was down yesterday too. And I was frustrated – I couldn’t check my emails, or update this blog, or confirm my Druk Air reservations. But many others must have been even more frustrated. The sudden loss of connectivity with the rest of the world would have prevented them from attending to much more important and urgent work. We should expect, and demand, higher quality of services. So I called Druknet. And I learned that their internet service was interrupted while they were upgrading their system. Apparently, while installing an advanced…

A continuing saga

January 29, 2009Government

“A week after the National Assembly approved the civil servant pay hike, the cabinet has revised the scarcity allowance system for teachers and doctors…” ran Kuensel’s main story yesterday (read article). The cabinet’s decision will bring a little relief to a few civil servants. But it will be a source of growing anxiety to many more. The message, after all, is that the pay revision can still be negotiated; that it is not final. As a matter of fact, the pay revision has been finalized. It has been debated in parliament. And it has been approved by the National…

Doing business isn’t easy anywhere

January 28, 2009Economy8 Comments

But it’s getting even harder in Bhutan! In “Really hard business” (read blog entry) I had grumbled that doing business in our country was really hard – the World Bank had ranked Bhutan 119th of the 178 countries it had evaluated on ease of doing business in 2008. Guess what? Doing business in Bhutan has become even harder! Doing Business 2009 report now ranks Bhutan 124th out of 181 countries that were investigated (see ranking). And in South Asia, Bhutan, ranked 7 of 8, fares better than only one country, war torn Afghanistan (see ranking). So what, you may…