All of us, the Bhutanese, would have reflected on the words of wisdom of His Majesty The King expressed through the Royal Address on 17th of December 2024 at Changlingmethang to the people of Bhutan and beyond. Further, these days, the national newspaper Kuensel has been covering the news on the government’s efforts to improve the quality of constructions through the establishment of a mobile monitoring unit to inspect the construction sites of buildings and infrastructures to curb the substandard constructions (Kuensel, December 31, 2024). And on January 1, 2025, the Kuensel published an article titled “Red tape and inefficient policies hold bad private sector: review of business regulations revealed major hurdles in business environment.” Against this backdrop, I am writing this perspective pertaining to the woes of small-scale industries in particular and small businesses in general.
Reflecting on the powerful messages of the Royal Address, there seems to be no option, at the moment, other than implementation of the Diamond Strategy. Are our government agencies and the private sector, and also all the Bhutanese mentally prepared to create and construct a system that is parallel to that of GMC so that “two systems” can be merged to “one system” after ten years. Onus falls on every Bhutanese.
The private sector as the engine of growth has been the persistent policy of the Royal Government of Bhutan – pre-and post democratic forms of governments. Cottage and small-scale industries spread across the country are the backbone of a country’s economic growth. T...
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