A part of me was gone. A part of me felt different and a part of me was in a strange pain that I had never felt before. I got into the front passenger seat of my car still faking a smile as the driver asked me if we should go home. I nodded and the ten minute drive home ended in silence. I did not cry.

I froze for a minute. I felt numb and then scrambled through my phone as I stared at a picture of you and me. It brought back memories of the first day we met, when I had butterflies in my stomach every time you were near and for every word you said. I smiled but I did not cry.

Distance makes the heart grow fonder say optimists but there are also those who say out of sight is out of mind. I laughed and nodded my head in disagreement.

Months flew by as I still stared at the photograph of you and me everyday. Everyday I counted the number of days left to see you. I told myself that it would be a matter of time before you were back. I was right though it did the least to console me or make my loneliness fade. I really missed you but I did not cry.

My heart raced as the countdown came to day 0. It was a matter of few hours and I was racing to Paro airport awaiting your arrival.

I imagined you throwing your luggage bags and running to embrace me like a scene in one of the movies I recently watched.

Reality struck as I saw you walking towards me carrying a bag bigger than yourself on your back and another one in your hand. I smiled as you smiled back. You dropped your bags, gave me a tight hug and a tender kiss on my forehead. I kept smiling and did not cry.

Half a year had gone by. You came back. A part of me came back as well and a part of me felt like you were never gone. A part of me is always you. Then I cried.

The rupee multi task-force formed by the government has identified other factors that have contributed to the outflow of Indian rupee from the country.

Remittances made by Indian laborers working in Bhutan, private education expenses on students studying in India and private medical expenses incurred on patients referred to India were recognized as the main causes of rupee shortage in the country apart from import of fuel and other commodities that were earlier identified as major contributors.

A report on the rupee shortage has estimated that the outward rupee remittance made by 51,616 Indians working in Bhutan amounted to Rs 1.3bn in the last fiscal year. A majority of the remittances were made by Indians employed by hydropower projects

Currently 30,249 of the workers are employed by hydropower projects while the remaining 21,367 are employed in other areas mainly the construction sector.

The task force report also identified the increasing number of  students studying in India that created a trend of increasing demand for rupee. In 2006, there were a total of 2,057 students studying privately in India. The education expenses of these students amounted  to Rs 352mn.

Last year, the number increased to 3,475 students doubling the educational expenses to Rs 600mn.

The report also showed that Bhutanese who travel to India for medical services also increased the rupee demand. During the last financial year it is estimated that INR 13.25mn have been spent by the Bhutanese for medical services in India.

Meanwhile, one of the major factors draining rupee reserves of the country is the import of vehicles and fuels from India.

The number of vehicles and fuels imported from India has been increasing by the year with more prominent increase identified in the last decade.

In 2004 a total of 3,159 vehicles were imported. Of this 1,614 were imported from India valued at Nu 263mn. The rest were from other countries which was valued at Nu 273mn.

The number has drastically increased since then. Last year, the total number of vehicles imported came to 8,473. Out of the total imports, 6,893 vehicles were imported from India amounting to Nu 3.6bn while the rest 1,580 vehicles were imported from third countries amounting to Nu 2.1bn.

The rupee outflow on account of vehicle imports from 2004 to 2011 was Rs 7.2bn.

With the increase in import of vehicles the amount of fuel imports also increased. In 2004, total fuel imports amounted to Nu 1.3bn of which Nu 340mn was accounted for petrol and the rest Nu 1bn for diesel.

Last year alone the total fuel imports amounted to Nu 4.2bn of which Nu 1.3bn was accounted for petrol while the rest Nu 2.8bn for diesel.

Other factors, according to the task force report, that led to the increasing demand for Rupee was the import of food and other major items from India, which saw drastic increase year after year. In 2010, imports of fish, meat, dairy and other animal products alone came to Nu 1.1bn.

Rice imports touched Nu 846mn, vegetables and fruits came to Nu 676mn, wood charcoal Nu 710mn, wood products Nu158mn, paper products Nu 506mn, beer Nu 314mn, prepared food and beverages Nu 898mn, textiles and clothing Nu 304mn and furniture Nu 276.10mn.

The top ten commodities traded with India in 2010 were high speed diesel, dumpers and goods vehicles, iron ore products, petrol, passenger cars, rice, coal, wood charcoal, ferrous wastes, and briquettes.

A report by the task force formed under the chairmanship of the finance secretary to study the rupee situation in the country recognizes pilgrimage to India as an issue that is not helping the economy in light of the rupee crisis.

The immigration department estimates that about 7,527 Bhutanese people went on pilgrimage in 2011 through the southern border towns. Even if one pilgrim last year had spent Rs 20,000 the total rupee outflow comes to a whopping Nu 150mn. This doesn’t include pilgrims flying to India.

The National Statistical Bureau records that number of travelers to India rose from 14,616 in 2005 to 20,318 in 2009 and corresponding expenditure increased from Rs 292mn to Rs 406mn.

The task force report notes that the actual number of pilgrims going out to India would be much higher than estimated figures as Bhutanese people are not required to register with any authority to travel to India. This also means that there is no way of knowing the exact outflow of rupees from pilgrims.

Other incidental experiences also show that more pilgrims would be going to India. For example, the recent religious ceremony held in the border town of Phuentsholing saw about 10,000 Bhutanese devotees attending it on a daily basis. Here, even if one devotee spent Nu 5,000, the total expenditure would be a high of Nu 100mn.

Similarly, the task force report noted various other reasons that have contributed to the outflow of the rupee like for education, health, remittances by Indian workers in Bhutan etcetera.

On the macroeconomic level, a simple explanation to the rupee crunch is triggered by imports far outweighing exports.

Bhutan’s exports primarily constitutes of hydropower supplemented by processed minerals like ferrosilicon, coal, calcium carbide, cement among others. On the other hand, Bhutan is an import-driven economy buying almost everything needed to sustain life from salt and rice to manpower and airplanes.

On top of that, the high domestic credit growth has only aggravated imports as it empowers all Bhutanese to spend more which results in more imports. Housing and construction loans form the largest component of bank credit and virtually all loans in the sector translate to imports. “In recent years, the rate of credit expansion has far exceeded the rate of GDP growth,” the report says.

The situation has aggravated so much that the report warns that the “economy is at risk of overheating.”  It attributes the reasons to “growth underpinned by hydropower development, increasing consumption, escalating external debt, upward inflationary pressures eroding gains in growth and external imbalances due to monetary expansion.”

Over the years, the rising current account deficits have deteriorated the Balance of Payments situation with India.

Task force advices not to remove ngultrum-rupee peg

The report also notes that the rupee situation wouldn’t have been as extreme if the ngultrum was not pegged to the rupee. It says “Under a liberal exchange rate system, trade imbalances would normally be corrected through an adjustment in the exchange rates by the market, whereby the rising demand for imports would be curtailed by the appreciation in the value of the trading partner’s currency, and thus the pressure would not be on the foreign currency reserves.”

But the report also says that pegging has “facilitated free trade between India and Bhutan through the lack of uncertainty in exchange rates. It serves as an explicit nominal anchor, ensuring price stability and maintaining confidence in the local currency.” It goes on to suggest “strongly” that “policy measures should not involve a decision to revise the peg arrangement.”

Status quo not an option

The report sums up the gravity of the rupee crisis when it says “the status quo is not a viable option at this point in time” and several short to medium term austerity measures have to be taken to salve the rupee crunch and the Balance of payment situation with India.

It warns “growth driven by high government spending spurred on by heavy imports and large inflows of donor funds is not sustainable in the long run.”

The government is advised to channel investments into more productive industrial and agriculture sectors and to diversify the economy by expanding the domestic supply or production base.

Recommendations

The task force has made several recommendations to the government. The recommendations include monetary, fiscal, trade and several others and all are broken down to short term and long term.

Most of the monetary recommendations have already been implemented by the central bank including streamlining access to the rupee, exchange restriction, closing bank accounts of non-residents in border towns, and attempts have already been made to enhance the Government of India line of credit.

The task force has recommended the government to impose a 40% green tax on the import of all vehicles and a 5% green tax on fuel imports. It also says the trend of giving vehicles as prizes in sport tournaments and other forms of competitions should be disallowed.

The Department of Revenue and Customs has been recommended to identify and propose new taxes together with rationalizing existing taxes.

The government has been recommended to implement several initiatives to reduce its expenditure including not to initiate new works and non-priority activities. Others are to reduce current expenditure on utilities, supplies, operating expenses, advertisement and entertainment.

It advises not to spend anything on capital expenses like furniture, office equipment, and vehicles irrespective of source of funding.

Few other recommendations include attracting Indian tourists, promoting the use of local building materials, and promoting import substitution by encouraging manufacturing industries, and to abolish tax-free vehicle quota system.

The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Bhutanese policy planners and experts on mountain development met in Thimphu this week to obtain inputs to the planning of ICIMOD’s future direction toward sustainable mountain development.

This comes at a time when ICIMOD is embarking on its new five-year program (2013-18) beginning next year. ICIMOD is proactively engaged in consulting the focal ministries and key stakeholders in the member countries on a priority basis.

Presenting the strategic framework for ICIMOD at meet, the director general of ICIMOD, David Molden, said the marginal mountain populations are becoming socially, economically, and environmentally more vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.

He said the meeting was an important event to share knowledge and enhance regional cooperation for sustainable mountains and better livelihoods of its people.

The meeting highlighted Bhutan’s policy and program priorities so that ICIMOD can align with them in the regional and national programs being developed for the next five years.

The secretary of Ministry of Agriculture and Forest, SherubGyaltshen, said environmental conservation has always received top priority in Bhutan and so one of the objectives of the 11th Five Year Plan (FYP) is achieving green socio-economic development through efficient planning.

He added that Bhutan as one of the member countries has benefited a lot from this partnership especially in terms of knowledge, experiences and human resource development that has significantly contributed to Bhutanese livelihoods.

The meeting also provided a platform for exchange of ideas and perspectives towards the achievement of sustainable mountain development.

It also helped to develop a better understanding of relevant national policies, enhanced closer interaction with national partners and to get benefit from the technical expertise available within Bhutan including knowledge about the Hindu Kush Himalayan regions.

ICIMOD and its partners in Bhutan that include both governmental agencies and non-governmental agencies had always been working together in various environmental conservation activities.

Last November, at the regional partnership event held in the Bhutan, the agriculture minister, LyonpoPemaGyamtsho, said ICIMOD provides great opportunities for member country partners to gain exposure to new technologies, methodologies, and practices in the regional context.

At the regional partnership event, Bhutan highlighted the importance of sustainable mountain development where LyonpoPemaGyamtsho, called on the countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas to work together on pressing issues of relevance to the whole region.

The ICIMOD’s strategic framework for the year 2008-12 identified three key strategic areas through intensive consultations with the member countries and stakeholders. These include; Integrated water and hazard management, Environmental change and ecosystem services, and Sustainable livelihoods and poverty reduction.

This approach favors trans-disciplinary problem analysis, design, and implementation, and monitoring of the programs. In particular it includes the crosscutting criteria of policy, governance, equity and gender, and mainstreaming information and knowledge management principles. ICIMOD’s strategy is aimed at benefiting the people of the region and at sustaining vital environmental services for the billions of people living downstream.

ICIMOD is a regional knowledge development and learning centre based in Kathmandu, Nepal, which serves the eight regional member countries of the Hindu Kush-Himalayas: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan.

The seven-day journey started at the break of dawn. The itinerary: enter Haa from Paro, trek through the villages including a stop-over at Sombaykha, opposition leader’s stronghold, and exit from Samtse. Perfect on paper. Only that trekking on muddy trails infested with slimy leeches, come rain or shine, wasn’t all too pleasing at first.

It was quite a huge entourage – 30 in total, among them the prime minister, economic affairs minister, and other officials of different rank and file. So there were enough company to talk to, learn from and while away the drudgery of walking – uphill journeys that fatigued the calves and downhill trudging, only the knees knew the pain.

Even before Lyonchhen began his journey, a few eyebrows had already been raised. Was this excursion a disguised political pilgrimage? Questions were asked. None was answered.

On the first day, after walking five-hours off the beaten path, prime minister’s Swiss trekking boots gave in to the treacherous mule track. On reaching Shebji village, an exhausted prime minister lightened up the crowd saying, his torn shoe was a testimony to the difficult conditions people here were living in.

The prime minister interacted with the villagers and explained to them the reason for his visit – to get a close up view of the progress of 10th plan, and to understand the difficulties faced by people of rural Bhutan.

Sporadic rainfall often accompanied by thunderstorm was a regular feature during the trip. Lyonchhen considered this a good omen. “I think it is a good omen that we have brought along rain with us,” the prime minister said.

A lot of officials accompanying the prime minister couldn’t agree any less, albeit for a different reason. Heavy shower cut the meetings shorter.

Have you seen the economic minister, LyonpoKhanduWangchuk, experience a moment of fright? A leech helped out to make that possible. A leech had scrupulously managed to inch toward Lyonpo’s lower lip, catching him off-guard. It’s funny when it happens to others yet no one including Lyonchhen could help but laugh – a hearty one at that. He even asked reporters to capture it on camera, only if they were a tad faster. By that time cameras were out, the episode was already over.

If it were to be a small Bhutan Health Unit, the entourage was a walking medical unit in itself with the amount of medicine they carried.

As a policeman shared his encounter with a bear on the way to Amochu village with few others, the prime minister explained to villagers how important it was for them to stay back in the village.

Addressing the people in Samtse, the prime minster put his lhotsamkha to test, of course with a great deal of prompting by education minister, LyonpoThakhur Singh Powdel and LyonpoKhanduWangchuk. An intrigued group of villagers gawked and giggled especially when words failed and Lyonchhen had to frequently turn around to education minister for help.

“I am very surprised and happy that the prime minister spoke to us in the language that we understand and with fluency,” said SandeepRai, a villager.

LyonpoKhanduWangchuk obviously spoke better nepali. When asked about rupee shortage, without a slight hesitance, lyonpo said, “Hamro jungle ma rata panay, totob, doma cha, teowchorayra, sapaidokanbarakineyrakhancha, tey lay rupee ko problem bako ho,” (We have plenty of pan and betel nuts growing in our forests but people buy them from the shops which are imported from neighboring country. That is why we have rupee problem in the country).

While the people were given hopes of road, electricity, and education, the prime minister told them to be hopeful that what was discussed during the 10 five year plan will be delivered.

Lyoncchen also gave a seek peek view of the 11th five year plan that would focus more on ‘rural prosperity and happiness’.

At SambayAma, the prime minister talked about the importance of being faithful partners, staying married to one another and respecting elders and staying back in the villages.

While at a nearby school, students shared their dreams of leaving their village to live better lives in urban towns.

“I want to work in Thimphu and from there I will send money to my parents, the money will take care of them,” said TsheringDorji, a fifth grade student, to Business Bhutan.

As the trip approached its end, even the weather gods were happy. The trip ended with a hearty meal of dried pork and turnip leaves. This curry was served umpteenth times during the expedition but there was no complaining. It nourished tired bodies and hungry stomachs, and gave them the will to walk through one of the toughest terrains in the country.

The ruling government will definitely be judged on the basis of whether it has been able to deliver the goods, meet development targets and fulfill campaign promises of the 10th plan.

Many members of parliament (MP) are already said to be making frequent rounds of their constituencies, in the final lap of their term, to ensure that all is well back at home.

What waits the new government, whichever political party comes to power, is a five-year plan that could possibly be a challenging one. For various reasons that is.

The recent rupee shortage in the economy that reached crisis proportions and refuses to abate even now will for sure spill over into next plan period. This will pose lot of hurdles. What a dampener to start with!

Government spending will have to be more prudent and perhaps it may also have to continue with austerity measures. Already, the guideline in its preliminary fiscal projections has suggested that capital and recurrent expenditure ratio could be 35:65 unlike previous plans where both were allotted equal weight.

That’s why the thrust of the 11th FYP is more on consolidation of facilities rather than expansion.

Recurrent expenditure is projected to shoot up owing to increased cost of maintenance of socio-economic infrastructure, most of which will be completed by end of the 10th plan.

Preliminary fiscal projections suggest that recurrent expenditure may vary by a whopping 74.65% from Nu 74,960.87mn in the 10th plan to 130,920.66mn in the 11th Five Year Plan.

On the contrary, the variance in the capital expenditure for the two plans is calculated at a measly 0.45%, indicating that there will be hardly any increase in capital investment. This further means that limitations may lead to selective prioritizing of development programs.

Expected plunge in external development grants from donor countries will also pose challenges. External grants are predicted to plummet from Nu 50,222.47mn in the 10th plan to Nu 47,334.73mn in the 11th plan.

Although this is in line with the overall goal of the plan to achieve economic self-reliance – that aims to achieve development needs without official development assistance by the end of 11th FYP – this will only further add pressure to the estimated budget of Nu 201bn. Net government borrowing is also expected to increase from Nu 12,973.97 in the 10FYP to Nu 14,093.52 resulting in the increase in repayment, which will amplify by Nu 5680.05mn in the next plan.

This shift in investment is also going to bring down annual GDP growth rate from 11.7% in 2011 to 9-10% by the end of  2018.

Juxtapose this financial situation against few critical targets to be achieved.

For unemployment the target is to achieve full employment of 2.5% from 3.1% at the end of the 10th plan and bring down the high level of youth unemployment of 9.3% in 2011 to less than 5% by the end of the 11th plan.

During the 11th plan, hydropower generation capacity is expected to be increased from 1,488mw in 2011 to 5,000mw in 2018. The national poverty rate will be reduced to 10% from the current rate of 7%. Life expectancy at the end of 11th plan is also expected to reach 70% from 67.7%.

These are a few examples of lofty targets set in the guideline for preparation of the 11th plan which will demand a lot of doing on part of the elected government. The situation could be a little shaky when there are one too many limitations from cuts in capital expenditure.

The new government will have to tighten the purse strings, cut on unnecessary expenditure, and may also have to compromise on development activities based on priority.

The other possible impediment could be posed by good intentions of pursuing a carbon neutral development – the overarching theme of the 11th plan. This could actually be counter-productive if possible development alternatives are not found to replace or compensate lost opportunities. There are signs and symptoms of undue pressure this environmental objective has had on rural livelihoods and utmost importance must be given to income generation programs for affected rural communities.

The positive outcome of the plan, if implemented properly, will eventually establish Bhutan as a self-reliant, green economy with many development aspirations achieved. This would also further speed up our graduation as a developing nation. Hopefully, at the end of the plan, we can boasts of having taken a step toward to achieving gross national happiness.

The government has received two applications for the establishment of private nursing institutes in the country after the cabinet, earlier in the month, approved the guidelines for such establishments.

The two applicants are from NadoGyaltshen, the promoter of Reldri Higher Secondary School and Richmond Technologies Company of India arranging to enter through the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) window.

NadoGyaltshen plans to establish the Reldri Institute of Health Sciences at Phuentsholing while Richmond Technologies Company is conducting a preliminary scan for proficiency.

The Ministry of Labor and Human Resources framed the guidelines for the establishment of private nursing institutes in the country.

According to the labor minister LyonpoDorjiWangdi, the guidelines for the establishment of private nursing institutes have been approved but there are still few points that need to be added.

The aspects of tertiary education policy need to be added in the guideline.

“It will be ready in a week or two after which people will be asked to put up proposals if they are interested to set up the institutions,”  he said.

The guideline is a combination of the labor ministry’s establishment regulations and the health ministry’s guideline for the minimum requirement criterion for establishment of nursing institutes in Bhutan.

According to the guidelines, private institutes will not be established in Thimphu.

The registrar of the Bhutan Medical and Health Ciouncil, Dr. PandupTshering, said two institutes will not be allowed to share a hospital. He explained that when two institutes share a hospital, the quality of services will be compromised.

At present, the only health institute in the country, the Royal Institute of Health sciences (RIHS), is located in Thimphu.

He said there will also not be enough patients for the trainees to practice.

“We want to make sure that these nurses are not only employed in Bhutan but are in demand in other countries as well,” said Dr. PandupTshering.

The guidelines also maintains that like RIHS the private nursing institutes must have four departments – department of basic science, department of nursing, department of midwifery, and department of community health nursing.

For trainees, the duration of the nursing and midwifery training for a bachelors course is four years and three years for a diploma course while the minimum requirements for admission in the courses are class XII.

According to the guidelines the total intake of the private nursing institutes will be defined in relation to institute’s capacity. The guideline also states that the institutes must have a minimum of 60% full time faculty members.

It must have a minimum of eight staff in the basic science department, five in the nursing, four in the community health, three in the midwifery and two in the pediatric department. This is the minimum requirement for the admission of 50 students.

“The minimum teacher-student ratio must be maintained at 1:25 for class room teaching and 1:12 for clinical teachers,” states the guideline.

Dr. PandupTshering suggested that it would not be wise to open up an institute in Punakha because the number of patient is very less.

According to the guidelines the student-patient ratio for teaching hospital must be 1:5.

The plan to allowprivate health institutes is in line with the naitonal health policy that states the government will simultaneously upgrade the existing health institutes and establish new health training institutes and nursing colleges to make the country a centre of excellence in producing quality and competent medical and health professionals that will address the health human resource issues within and outside the country.

Currently there are about 556 nurses with a combined shortage of over 700 nurses in hospitals around the country.

RIHS trains about 25 to 30 nurses every year. However, there is a shortage of more than that at the moment,

“These institutes will not only boost the quality of health services but will also make sure that it solves the shortage problem in the country,” said LyonpoDorjiWangdi.

The director of the Department of Human Resource, SonamRinchen, said that the institutes will also address the problem of unemployment in the country.

The Data Service Centre (DCS) at ThimphuTechPark, that can measure up to even the best data centre in the world, will kick start operation by end of this month.

Already, around 30 potential parties from across a broad spectrum that include ministries, autonomous bodies, corporate and private sector and companies from abroad have expressed interest to use the facility at the data center. Many of them are however yet to confirm.

The data center was jointly developed by a local IT firm, New Edge Technologies Private Limited and Burland Technology Solutions Limited (BTSL), a UK based IT company.

“Bhutan has good fiber connectivity and there is no reason why one should go to the US, the UK and European countries to host data centers,” said the CEO of BTSL, Richard Vass.

The data center at IT Park boasts of world-class design and multi-tier 2 facilities with up to 10, 000 sq. ft support space and 8,000 sq. ft server room. The DCS is designed to handle new generation blade servers and data storage technologies. The DCS will operate on high-speed redundant internet backbone connectivity.

The facility has 30 racks. Its seismic heavy duty server cabinets and anti static flooring has been brought from the UK.

The flooring is known for energy efficient and high density data centre cooling systems.

The data center houses a localized UPS system from Eaton to complement the diesel generator that has been kept as backup in case of power cuts.

“I will be monitoring systems daily from my desk in England,” said Richard Vass, the Joint Venture Partner.

“We finally have a facility that is scaled and ready to serve Bhutan and provide a national data centre,” he said at the inaugural of the Bhutan Innovation and Technology Centre last week.

“Bhutan is likely to compete globally with what we have to offer here.”

The developers have reliable tie ups with world renowned vendors of IT hardware, CISCO switches and routers, CAT6A shielded networks from Tyco and has ISO 27001 accredited security systems.

The centre will have 24/7 onsite manned security and nitgen biometric, an access control device to monitor the movement of visitors.

While the partners wait to operate the DCS by next month they are positive that they are prepared well to host the centre. They finally have the internal capacity to manage and run the centre.

Talking about the marketing the data centre, the sales manager, Biju Jacob John told Business Bhutan that it will depend on the services the customer will take. “We will be competitive when it comes to pricing,” he said.

Faced with space crunch to start the first of its kind customer service center (CSC) that was inaugurated on Thursday, the thromde built an extension to accommodate the service center at the ground floor within the current municipality building.

Although the launch of the CSC was delayed by two months, thromde officials believe that the one stop service window will speed up service delivery. The CSC provides services for water billing, revenue related issues and complaints for water and sewerage.

Currently, only four counters are open due to perennial shortage of manpower at the thromde office. However, in the long run, all municipality services will be made available through this service center.

“We would be delivering services from the service centre and want the customer service center to be the root of the municipality,” said Thimphu mayor, KinlayDorjee.

The fourth counter for customer care will do necessary follow-ups for the people.

“Staff at the customer care will be courteous and helpful unlike in the past when our customers have been disgruntled,” said thrompon.

For example, earlier if a person had to get a building permit he or she would have to come to the thromde office and approach individual officials but now the customer service center will receive all drawings and direct it to officials concerned.

“The centre will make public service delivery convenient for the public. People do not know where to go and at times they cannot get their work done. The center is an interface between the public and the thromde,” said RinchenWangdi of ThimphuThromde.

The services provided will be faster and more efficient guarantee thromde officials.

ThimphuThromde hopes this example will be emulated by other dzongkhagthromdes as well. “If it is successful then other dzongkhags should follow suit. This not only benefits the people but the thromde as well,” said RinchenWangdi.

In two months time from now, the service center will have its own website, making it more convenient for the public to access information, services and keep track of their work status online.

“We want to tell the people that we care for the customers. We do not want the people to be upset when they come to the thromde. The services will be delivered on time,” said thromponKinlayDorjee.

During the campaign, the mayor had promised to improve customer care at the thromde office. And he has kept this one.