ཁྱོད་ཚར་རེ་མཐོངམ་ད།

 ཁྱོད་ཚར་རེ་མཐོངམ་ད།

Chhe tsha re thong da bu ngi lo sem di tsa da pule rang michha bey 

ཁྱོད་ཚར་རེ་མཐོངམ་ད་ བུ་ངེའི་བློ་སེམས་འདི་ རྩ་དང་སྤུ་ལས་རང་ མི་ཆགས་པས། 

It is irrestible when I see yopu

chhe dong di gawa ngi sem tsho daru thong ni yeh rung tu be mo

ཁྱོད་མཐོང་པའི་དགའ་བ་ ངེའི་སེམས་ལུ་འཚོར། ད་རུང་མཐོང་ནི་ཡོད་རུང་བཏུབ་པས་སྨོ།

 di atara jurwa mey pa mo dey ni yeh rung gawe mo 

དུས་ཨ་རྟག་རང་ འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པར་སྨོ་      སྡོད་ནི་ཡོད་རུང་དགའ་བས་སྨོ།

sem lu gato jurwai ditshe di di win thungku chi ley mi 

སེམས་ལུ་དགའ་སྤྲོ་འབྱུང་བའི་དུས་ཚོད་འདི་ དུས་ཡུན་ཐུང་ཀུ་ཅིག་ལས་མེད་

jurwa mey pa dey ni ye ru ga 

འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པར་སྡོད་ནི་ཡོད་རུང་དགའ་བས།

mitshe thungku ngi lammm zum di na chhe ngi gi ngilam na lu wong na mey 

མི་ཚེ་ཐུང་ཀུ་ཉིད་ལམ་བཟུམ་འདི་ནང་    ཁྱོད་ངེ་གི་ཉིད་ལམ་ནང་འོང་གནང་མས།

 

ngilam gato ditshe zom na mey gato ngilam nang lu dey ge me....

ཉིད་ལམ་དགའ་སྤྲོའི་དུས་ཚོད་བཟུམ་ནང་རྫོགས་དགེ་མས།

 di atara jurwa mey pa mo dey ni yeh rung gawe mo 

དུས་ཨ་རྟག་རང་ འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པ་སྨོ་ སྡོད་ནི་ཡོད་རུང་དགའ་བས་སྨོ།

sem lu gato jurwai ditshe di di win thungku chi ley mi 

སེམས་ལུ་དགའ་སྤྲོ་འབྱུང་བའི་དུས་ཚོད་འདི་ དུས་ཡུན་ཐུང་ཀུ་ཅིག་ལས་ མེད།

jurwa mey pa dey ni ye rung ga

འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པར་སྡོད་ནི་ཡོད་རུང་ དགའ།

 

Chhe tsha re thong da bu ngi lo sem di tsa da pule rang michha bey 

ཁྱོད་ཚར་རེ་མཐོངམ་ད་ བུ་ངེའི་བློ་སེམས་འདི་ རྩ་དང་སྤུ་ལས་རང་ མི་ཆགས་པས། 

chhe dong di gawa ngi sem tsho daru thong ni yeh rung tu be mo

ཁྱོད་མཐོང་པའི་དགའ་བ་ ངེའི་སེམས་ལུ་འཚོར། ད་རུང་མཐོང་ནི་ཡོད་རུང་བཏུབ་པས་སྨོ།

 di atara jurwa mey pa mo dey ni yeh rung gawe mo 

དུས་ཨ་རྟག་རང་ འགྱུར་བ་མེད་པར་སྨོ་      སྡོད་ནི་ཡོད་རུང་དགའ་བས་སྨོ།

ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས།

 ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས།

བུ། bu/,male 

སྨན་ཆུང་བུ་མོའི་ཞལ་རས་ ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས་ སྐྱོན་དང་གྲིབ་མ་མིན་འདུག།

sman chung bu mo'i zhal ras  ha legs mi legs  skyon dang grib ma min 'dug/

With no flaws and impurities, how amazing is the lady’s beauty!

ཁྱོད་བཟུམ་ལེགས་པའི་ངོ་རིས་     ཧིང་ཚ་མི་ཚ་ དཀར་ཡོལ་ནང་གི་ཨོ་མ།

khyod bzum legs pa'i ngo ris      hing tsha mi tsha  dkar yol nang gi o ma/

Your beauty like a pure milk in the cup is so heart throbbing!

དམར་པོའི་གདངས་དང་ལྡནམ་བཟུམ་ ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས་ ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་ཞལ་རས་ལེགས་པས། 

dmar po'i gdangs dang ldanm bzum  ha legs mi legs  khyod kyi zhal ras legs pas/

Adorned with a red face, how amazing your beauty is!

ཡིད་འཕྲོག་ལྷ་མོའི་ཞལ་རས་  ཧིང་ཚ་མི་ཚ།  མཆོད་ཟས་འབད་རུང་བཏུབ་པས།༢ 

yid 'phrog lha mo'i zhal ras   hing tsha mi tsha/  mchod zas 'abd rung btub pas/2 times

The heart throbbing beauty of lady can be an object of offering!

 

སྙན་ཆ། snyan cha/, Music

བུམོ།bumo/ Female

སྟག་ཤར་ལེགས་པའི་ཐུགས་རིགས་ ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས་ བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའ་ཡི་བསམ་པ།

stag shar legs pa'i thugs rigs  ha legs mi legs  byang chub sems dpa' yi bsam pa/

With the Boddhisatva’s mind, how amazing the intellect of a man is!

ཁྱོད་དང་འདྲཝ་ཅིག་མི་འོང་ ཧིང་ཚ་མི་ཚ།  ཕྱི་ཡི་བྱ་སྤྱོད་མཛེས་པས།

khyod dang 'draw cig mi 'ong  hing tsha mi tsha/  phyi yi bya spyod mdzes pas/

With elegant demeanor, there won’t be anyone so heart throbbing like you

རྒྱལ་བའི་སྲས་ཀྱི་མཛད་བྱ་ ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས་ ཁྱོད་ལུ་བསྟོད་པ་ཕུལ་དོ།

rgyal b'i sras kyi mdzad bya  ha legs mi legs  khyod lu bstod pa phul do/

Praises are being offered to you for amazing prince’s deeds!

ཁྱོད་དང་འདྲཝ་ཅིག་མི་འོང་ ཧིང་ཚ་མི་ཚ་  ཕྱི་ཡི་བྱ་སྤྱོད་མཛེས་པས།༢

khyod dang 'draw cig mi 'ong  hing tsha mi tsha/  phyi yi bya spyod mdzes pas/2 times 

With elegant demeanor, there won’t be anyone so heart throbbing like you

སྙན་ཆ། snyan cha/, Music

བུ། bu/,male 

སྤང་ཤོང་བདེ་མོའི་མེ་ཏོག་ ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས་ ཁ་མདོག་སྣ་ལྔ་ལེགས་པས།

spang shong bde mo'i me tog  ha legs mi legs  kha mdog sna lnga legs pas/

With beautiful five different colors, how amazing the flowers in the plain garden are!  

འདི་དང་འདྲ་བའི་བུམོ་ཁྱོད་ ཧིང་ཚ་མི་ཚ་ རེ་རེ་གཉིས་གཉིས་ལས་མིན་ནུག།

'di dang 'dra b'i bumo khyod  hing tsha mi tsha  re re gnyis gnyis las min nug/

Similarly, there are only few women so beautiful like you

 

འཛམ་གླིང་མི་ཡི་སྲས་མོ་ ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས་ ངོ་རིས་ཕུན་སུམ་ཚོགས་ཡོད།

'dzam gling mi yi sras mo  ha legs mi legs  ngo ris phun sum tshogs yod/

With richness of beauty, how amazing the princess of the world is! 

སྨན་ཆུང་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་གཟུགས་ ཧིང་ཚ་མི་ཚ་ སྐུ་རྟེན་འབད་རུང་བཏུབ་པས།༢

sman chung khyod kyi sku gzugs  hing tsha mi tsha  sku rten 'abd rung btub pas/2 times

Your heart throbbing body can be a relic statue!

སྙན་ཆ། snyan cha/, Music

བུམོ།bumo/ Female

ནོར་བུ་ལེ་ཤ་འཛོམས་རུང་ ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས་ ཁྱོད་བཟུམ་འབྱུང་བ་དཀོན་མས།

nor bu le sha 'dzoms rung  ha legs mi legs  khyod bzum 'byung ba dkon mas/

Even if many precious gems are gathered, it is so rare to find someone amazing like you

ས་སྟེང་འདི་རུ་དཀོན་པ་ ཧིང་ཚ་མི་ཚ་ སྟག་ཤར་མི་ཡི་མེ་ཏོག།

sa steng 'di ru dkon pa  hing tsha mi tsha  stag shar mi yi me tog/

Hearth throbbing like you is flower to people, so rare to find on the earth.   

སྟག་ཤར་བཞོན་པའི་ཞལ་རས་ ཧིང་ཚ་མི་ཚ་ མཆོད་ཟས་འབད་རུང་བཏུབ་པས། 

stag shar bzhon pa'i zhal ras  hing tsha mi tsha  mchod zas 'abd rung btub pas/

The heart throbbing handsomeness of a man can be an object of offering!

སྟག་ཤར་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྐུ་གཟུགས་ ཧ་ལེགས་མི་ལེགས་ སྐུ་རྟེན་འབད་རུང་བཏུབ་པས།༢

stag shar khyod kyi sku gzugs  ha legs mi legs  sku rten 'abd rung btub pas/2 times 

Your amazing body can be a relic statue!

 

ཁྲུངས་སྐར་ཕུན་ཚོགས་ལྔ་ལྡན།

སངས་རྒྱསའི་རྗེས་སུ་བྲངས་ནས་སྤྲུལ་སྐུ།།

འགྲོ་བའི་འཇིགས་སྐྱོབས་ནུས་པས་འཇིགས་མེད།།

བསྟན་པའི་སྒྲ་ཆེན་སྒྲོགས་ནས་ཆོས་གྲགས།།

མི་སེར་ཡོངས་ཀྱིས་བསྟེན་པའི་སྐྱབས་རྗེ།།

ཞིང་འདིར་འབྲུག་ལུ་ཁྲུངས་ནས་གནས་བཟང་།།

རྡོ་རྗེའི་ཁྲིར་ལ་བཞུགས་མཁན་བསྟན་བཟང་།།

གདམས་ངག་ཚུལ་ཁྲིམས་སྤེལ་བའི་ཆོས་བཟང་།།

བསྟན་པ་འཇིགས་གྲགས་ཁྲུངས་པའི་དུས་བཟང་།།

བསྐལ་བཟང་དད་མོས་ལྡན་པའི་འཁོར་བཟང་།།

ཕུན་ཚོགས་ཡོངས་རྫོགས་བསྡུ་བའི་བརྟེན་འབྲེལ།།

རྡོ་རྗེ་འཆང་གི་ཁྲི་རབས་བདུན་བཅུར།།

སྐྱབས་རྗེ་ཁྲུངས་ལོ་བདུན་བཅུ་བཞེས་པ། 

བསྐལ་བཟང་བརྟེན་འབྲེལ་མིན་ན་ཅི་ཡིན?

Gelephu-the valley of virtuous deeds.

Stretching its hills and valleys, 

With no walls of cliffs and terrains,

Dotted with broad leaved trees,

Bowing in the waves of gentle breeze and 

Betel nut trees offering the Zhugdrel 

Welcoming every visitor alike

High and low, 

National and foreigner, 

Rich and poor, 

From different professions; be it religious and business, 

From different ethnicity and 

From diverse culture and socio-economic background, and 

Embracing even the other beings 

This is the Gelephu-the valley of virtuous deeds, 

I bow to this sacred place! 

In the land of virtuous deeds, 

Embarking the noble Ge-SAR project, 

Spearheaded by the visionary Gesar Gyalpo, 

A city of mindfulness, a haven for contemplation,

Where thoughts, words and actions align. 

In the profound vision of His Majesty, 

With fervent prayers and unwavering confidence

I bow to the visionary, The Gesar Gyalpo!

ཐངས་ཆེན་ཡངས་པའི་ཚལ་ནང་། 

བསིལ་བའི་རླུང་གིས་གཡབ་པའི།

ལོ་འདབ་རྒྱས་པའི་ཤིང་དང་།

བཞུགས་གྲལ་རྡོག་མའི་ཕུད་ཀྱིས།

ཐག་རིང་འབྱོན་པའི་མགྲོན་པོ།

གོང་མ་དཔོན་དང་གཡོག་པོ།

ནང་དང་ཕྱི་ཡི་མི་ཁུངས།

རྟོགས་ལྡན་ཆོསཔ་དང་ཚོང་པ།

ལུགས་དང་མི་སྡེ་ཡོངས་ལས།

མི་རིགས་སྣ་ཚོགས་མ་ཚད།

སྐྱེ་རིགས་སྲོག་ཆགས་གནས་པའི།

དགེ་བའི་སྤྱོད་བཟང་ལྡན་པའི།

གནས་བཟང་དགེ་ལེགས་ཕུག་ལ།

དད་པའི་ངོ་མཚར་ཆེ་བའོ།

སྤྱོད་བཟང་ལྡན་པའི་གནས་ནང་།

མཁྱེན་རྒྱ་ཆེ་བའི་དཔོན་པོ།

གེ་སར་རྒྱལ་པོས་དབུ་འཁྲིས།

ཡ་མཚན་དགེ་སར་ལས་འགུལ།

བསམ་བརྗོད་སྤྱོད་པ་མཐུན་ས།

གནས་ལུགས་རྟོགས་པའི་གནས་བཟང་།

དྲན་ཤེས་ཁྲོམ་གྱི་དགོངས་བཞེད་ལུ། 

དག་པའི་སྨོན་ལམ་བཟང་པོ་དང་།

ཐེ་ཚོམ་འདས་པའི་བློ་གཏད་ཀྱིས།

མངོན་གཟིགས་ཅན་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ།

གེ་སར་རྒྱལ་པོ་ཕྱག་འཚལ་ལོ།

As I go back from Gelephu Mindfulness City. 

Dashos and Politicians- Enroll your children in Bhutanese school for education quality?

No one argues about the significance of education. Education is empowerment and some says a social leveler but only if discourses are accessible and equal to everyone in learning and making the discourses itself. Growing up as a primary kid, most speeches of education officials and principals wouldn't end without mentioning that "Education is like an eye to see the world" and "A domain of knowledge is more important than a hundred pounds of gold" "ཤེས་ཡོན་འཛམ་གླིང་ བལྟ བའི་མིག་ཏོ་ཨིན།" "གསེར་བསྲང་བརྒྱ་ལས་ཡོན་ཏན་སྣ་གཅིག་དགའ།" 

By that non-negotiable priority, Bhutanese are so fortunate to receive free basic education from the state. We have come very far in terms of educational development considering that we have started modern and mass education very recently. In every development plan, we have invested generously in education. However, today, there is emerging consensus that our education is plagued with complex and intractable quality issues amongst many others. 

For some quite long period, I have been mulling over the question why is everyone concerned about the quality of education. While there may be so many latent and manifested factors behind, in my view, education issues have never received the attention it deserved. Besides the daily functions of the educational related institutions, there is no national ownership of the education. With many national executives having studied outside, the experience of studying in Bhutan is very limited and superficial. Most national decision regarding educational expenditure so far has been on infrastructure and other hardware component and not much on software and content of the education. Still today, our schools and principals elsewhere are struggling to meet basic needs such as classrooms, teachers, and even the stationaries for students. Thanks to resolute and innovative initiatives of some school principals, basic necessities are met for time being. They solicit supports from alumni and other generous donors through different means. At the personal level, I have contributed financially to my brother's school several times without any questions. The school administration was seeking support to buy basic items such as projectors, whiteboard, table cloths and for conducting meetings. Similarly, one of my alma maters too approached alumni to contribute for school stationaries for around 100 students and saw one former minister garnering support from alumni in contributing to his former school. From such, are schools contingent on the generosity of donors or meagre contributions done from parents? How is this sustainable? There must be targeted support for schools in urban areas and schools in rural areas. Is it calling for opening up the sectors to private sectors and ensuring a trust fund in the education sector to invest in basic necessities at least. 

To exacerbate the quality issue, we as a nation have failed to keep education up to date with the changing time and technological advancement of the international standard. Instead, most executives and those who have means have enrolled their children abroad and organized a job market with a system and standards that is totally out of Bhutanese context. Perhaps, that is why the mismatch of skills with the market demand is in play. I cannot help posing few questions often. What would have happened to the quality of education if all of us have taken ownership? What would be circumstances if Dashos and politicians' children studied in Bhutanese schools? If most Dashos, politicians and policy makers have sent their children abroad, I guess wrong people are coming up with solution to address education quality in Bhutan. Do people have personal stake in national education system? 

The education system calls for a comprehensive review, considering not only the infrastructure but also content, relevance and aligning with international standard.

མི་ཚེའི་སྙིང་པོ།

འཛམ་གླིང་འཁོར་བའི་ས་སྟེང་། འཇིག་པའི་རང་བཞིན་ཡིན་ན་ཡང་། 

མི་ལུས་འཐོབ་ཁན་སྤྲང་པོ། བདེ་བ་ཡུད་ཙམ་ཅིག་གེ། 

ཆགས་པ་ཞེན་པ་བསྐྱེད་དེ། སྡུག་བསྔལ་སེམས་མས་མ་བསམ། 

དམ་ཆོས་སྒྲུབ་པ་མ་ཚུགས། དོན་མེད་མི་ཚེ་ཕྲོ་བརླག། 

སོང་ཚེ་འགྱོད་པ་བསྐྱེད་རུང་། ལོག་པའི་ཐབས་ཅིག་མ་འབྱུང་། 

རང་གི་དྲིན་ཆེན་ཨ་མ། ལྷ་མོའི་ཞལ་རས་འབག་སྟེ། 

བྱམས་བརྩེ་ཚད་མེད་སྐྱོངས་ཚེ། བུ་ཚ་དགའ་སྐྱིད་དྲག་སྟེ། 

ཕ་མའི་ཚེའི་ཚད་མ་ཤེས། དགྲ་ཆེན་འཆི་བ་འོང་ཚེ། 

བུ་ཚ་མི་གྲལ་བཞུགས་པའི། ན་ཚོད་རན་ཧིང་མ་བལྟ། 

ད་ལྟ་མཐོང་ས་མེད་པ། འདྲིན་ལན་འཇལ་ཐབས་མ་འབྱུང་།

དམ་ཚིག་ཅན་གྱི་ཨ་ཞེ། ལོ་དང་ན་ཚོད་ཆུང་རུང་། 

ཨ་མའི་འགན་འཁུར་འཕོག་སྟེ། སྤུན་ལ་རྐང་ཐངས་དྲངས་སེ། 

བྱམས་བརྩེ་མྱོངས་འཁན་ཉུང་པོ། ཨ་ཞེའི་ན་གཟུགས་མ་འཚོར། 

ཚེ་སྒང་དཀའ་བ་དཔྱད་དེ། ན་ཐན་གྲུབ་འབྲས་འབྱུང་ཚེ། 

གློ་འབུར་ཚེ་ལས་འདས་ཚེ། གཉིད་ལམ་དངོས་སུ་མ་ཤེས། 

སྐྱེས་པའི་ཁ་ཚིག་ལྡན་པའི། ངའི་གི་ཡབ་རྗེ་དམ་པ། 

བཟའ་ཚང་དགའ་སྐྱིད་དོན་གེ། དཀའ་བ་གནག་པུ་དཔྱད་དེ། 

རེ་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་བཀང་སེ། ལངས་ཤོར་བུ་ཚ་ང་ཀིས། 

དཀའ་སྡུག་ཡང་ལྗིད་མ་ཤེས། ད་ལྟན་སོན་པོ་ཡོད་རུང་། 

རང་གི་འཁོར་བའི་མི་ཚེ། སྐྱོངས་སང་རེ་བ་བསྐྱེད་དེ། 

བར་ལས་ལ་ལུང་གཅད་དེ། ལཱ་དང་གཡོག་གིས་བཀག་སྟེ། 

གདོང་བསྐོར་འཛོམས་སང་མེད་ཚེ། ཉོན་མོངས་འཁོར་བའི་མི་ཚེ། 

མི་ལུས་འཐོབ་སྟེ་འབད་རུང་། དོན་དག་སྙིང་པོ་ཡོད་གམ?

Critical review of Bhutan's achievement of criteria for LDC Graduation

Bhutan was included along with 25 other countries in the LDC list in 1971 and found eligible for graduation for the first time during the 2015 triennial review of the Committee for Development Policy (CDP), the subsidiary advisory body of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). In the same year, Bhutan fulfilled the graduation threshold levels for the GNI per capita and Human Asset Indicator criteria but did not meet the threshold for the Economic Vulnerability Indicator. 

As Bhutan continued to meet the thresholds in the same two criteria, the CDP during its March 2018 Triennial Review recommended for graduation to the ECOSOC. Further, the independent vulnerability profile reports of  UNCTAD and ex-ante impact assessment of UNDESA had positive assessments in terms of Bhutan’s graduation from LDC.

With the standard transition period, Bhutan would have graduated in 2021. However, the Government conveyed to the CDP the need for a longer transition period of 5 years coinciding with the 12th Five Year Plan period. 

On the basis of the performance of LDC criteria and assessments by UNCTAD and UNDESA, General Assembly resolution A/RES/73/133 adopted on 13 December 2018, decided that Bhutan will graduate five years after the adoption of the resolution, i.e. on 13 December 2023. 

Even in 2021 triennial review, Bhutan fulfilled all three criteria after the revision of EVI criteria and reaffirmed CDP’s recommendation of Bhutan’s graduation. 

Are we ready? 

While the UN development indicators enable Bhutan to graduate by 2023, the question is; are we ready and prepared to graduate? This can be answered by critically reviewing Bhutan's achievement in respective criterion for LDC graduation in relation to existing developmental challenges. I will leave out the implications of graduation for there are already several publications.

1. Bhutan’s LDC Performance

Table: Bhutan’s performance in the CDP Triennial Review

Source: Committee for Development Policy, United NationsGNI Per capita; 

1.1. Gross National Income (GNI) Per capita. 

While the GNI indicator performance records a tremendous success, the significant contributions are from resource intensive and climate sensitive sectors such as hydropower and tourism (biodiversity) with limited degree of manufacturing. The private sectors are yet to unleash their full potential and tax revenues are very modest in it’s contribution to GDP. Further, the impact of covid 19 pandemic led to a decrease of GDP and GNI to USD 2325 and 2306 respectively in 2020. The GDP growth rate nosedived to -10 in the same year. It was estimated to have an economic loss of Nu.10 billion in the process of containing covid 19 pandemic. Thus, while the rapid rise of per capita income signals a quick prosperity it hides the structural impediments to economic diversification. 

The growth in the GDP and GNI also did not have commensurate job creation as the unemployment rates are high amongst the undergraduates. The hydropower and industry have a disproportionate contribution to jobs and GDP. In addition, the income disparities between rural- urban areas remain a developmental challenge to address and widened further by the covid 19 impacts in 2020 through lay-offs, furloughs, leave without pay or reduced wages and inflated prices of basic goods. 

1.2 Human Asset Index (HAI)

As far as HAI is concerned, Bhutan has done considerably well on educational sub-indicators which captures the gross secondary enrollment, gender parity index in secondary enrolment and adult literacy.  However, the learning outcomes and the quality of the education have come under public scrutiny that it is not up to the standard both nationally and internationally. Further, the access to Early Childhood care and development (ECCD) facilities are limited and tertiary education is grappling with increasing demand of students, limited resources and rapidly changing skills requirements. The absorption of graduates and educated youths into the civil service and corporation  is minimal and private sectors are not able to employ due to mismatch of skills and lack of experiences. Youths face difficulty in finding jobs and many are looking to go abroad for income opportunities but by undertaking blue collar jobs such as cleaner and elderly caregivers.  Such aforementioned ground realities are camouflaged in the HAI parameters and graduation from LDC will have huge implications in human resource development. 

With regard to health indicators, the criteria covers prevalence of stunting, under five mortality rate and maternal mortality rate. As of 2021, the NSB recorded under five mortality at 34.1 while the stunting value at 23 and maternal mortality value at 185. The 2015 national nutritional survey reported the prevalence of stunting among children under five years of age at 21.2%. The report also recorded the health concern of prevalence of 43.8% and almost 40% of anemia in women and adolescent girls respectively. 

Further, non-communicable disease has become the main disease burden and cause of premature death in the country. NCD is reported to be the main cause of more than 50% death in the country. The country's policy of free public healthcare is known to be a substantial financial liability and therefore, sustainability remains an issue to address. Covid 19 pandemic also indicated the need for Bhutan to develop a robust mechanism to respond to health needs during emergencies and aftermath of natural disasters. In the immediate term, Bhutan needs to address the human resource shortage in health sectors. 

In general, while the education and health indicators confirm the development progress, there is no commensurate success in poverty rate reduction. The recent NSB report recorded a spike in poverty rate to 12.4% from 8.2% in 2017. This translates into 80614 people living under the poverty line with less than Nu.6204 people per month. 

1.3) Economic and Environmental Vulnerability Index

The EVI is composed of indicators of share of agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing in GDP, remoteness and landlockedness, merchandise export concentration, instability of exports of goods and services, share of population in low elevated coastal zones, share of the population living in drylands, instability of agricultural production, and victims of disasters.

Bhutan fulfilled the vulnerability index for the first time in the 2021 triennial review after the revision of vulnerability criteria by adding environmental dimension. In a recent review, Bhutan’s share value of agriculture, hunting, forestry and fishing stands at 16.2. The value for remoteness and landlockedness stands at 51.2 and merchandise export concentration at 0. 37 while the instability of exports of goods and services at 10. The value of instability of agricultural production is at 7.4 and victims of disasters at 0.15.

While this remains an achievement for Bhutan, other economic challenges such as unstable macroeconomic environment, growing debt burden, lack of technology and human capital, a lack of productive capacities, an insufficiently diversified economic base and export basket that inhibits trade expansion, and marked vulnerability to natural disasters will have significant bearings on building resilience and more so after the graduation. 

While the agriculture sector remains to be the largest employer at 57.2%, there is not much of a commensurate GDP contribution (16.5%). At the same time, the limited shift of workforce from agriculture to manufacturing  distinguishes the economy as largely agrarian and requires some further structural economic transformation. The sector is prone to Climate change related disasters and human- wildlife conflict. 

On the flip side, the share of manufacturing remained very small at just 11 percent with most MSMEs engaged in the production of low value-added products. The private sector is still at a nascent stage and our industrial production is plagued with severe supply chain issues, rising input and transaction costs and inefficient market linkages despite the overall improvement in infrastructure such as roads, telecommunication, ICT and transport. According to the 2018 World Bank Logistics Performance Index (LPI), Bhutan has one of the weakest logistics performance (second to Afghanistan)scoring particularly low on the quality of trade and transport related infrastructure.  The FDI inflows to Bhutan are considered to be lower than FDI flows to other LDCs in the South Asia region.

Similarly, the country’s highest revenue generating sector of hydropower is unable to provide enough employment opportunities for the domestic workforce. Our heavy reliance on the sector for growth and export leads to macroeconomic uncertainties and vulnerabilities. In light of the increased climate-change,  adverse weather events could negatively affect electricity generation from existing plants and, in turn, affect energy-intensive industries. In addition, hydropower is plagued with delays in construction, enormous cost escalation, and  causing factors for mounting public debts. 

On the trading front, Bhutan faces numerous exogenous and endogenous challenges to trade, including the heavy reliance on the Indian market, changing global trading system, restrictive customs procedures, supply constraints and inadequacies of trade‐related infrastructure, and undiversified export basket and export markets. Such weak productive capacities and limited export diversification have resulted in high import content in domestic consumption and production leading to trade and account deficit. Further, owing to limited access to regional and international markets by Bhutan’s producers, we have not been able to increase trade value of goods and services significantly as compared to other LDCs in the region such as Nepal. 

Environmentally, Bhutan’s mountainous and fragile topography is susceptible to natural disasters such as Glacial lake outburst floods, persistent landslides, frequent earthquakes, floods, forest fires, and windstorms. In addition, the country lacks the financial resources and technical expertise to adequately manage frequent disasters.

In conclusion, the UN development criteria does not really capture the actual socio-economic development and its progress. It is important that Bhutan graduates from LDC with a strong and vibrant economy foundation which in turn would go a long way in smooth and efficient transition to a developing country status. Even the CDP in various triennial review reports express the concern for Bhutan’s on its  heavy reliance on hydropower exports, tourism and agriculture and accordingly recommends that the Government continues its efforts to foster economic diversification, supporting in particular the development of small and medium sized enterprises and cottage industries to help expand domestic production and reduce import dependency. It also recommends strengthening and diversifying its linkages with the Indian economy.

References 

CDP (2022). Monitoring of countries graduating and graduated from the list of LDC category:

CDP (2018). Vulnerability profile of Bhutan. Available at https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/CDP-PL-2018-6a.pdf

United Nation (n.d).  LDC portal- International support measures for least developed countries.  Available at https://www.un.org/ldcportal/content/about-ldc-portal

UNTAD (2022). Towards a smooth transition strategy for Bhutan. Available at https://unctad.org/system/files/official-document/aldc2021d5_en.pdf.