Lyonchhoen with the minister of Panchayat, rural development and transport, Mr Chandan Brahma of Bodoland territorial council on January 19 in Gelephu

21 January, 2010 - Within the next two years, the DPT government will not only try to fulfill what it has promised but go beyond it, Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley told a gathering of about a thousand people, comprising businessmen, civil servants, students and residents of Gelephu town on Tuesday.

He said that, as promised, his government would try and link all the 205 gewogs with roads. However, places like Laya, Lunana and Soe in the north-western part of the country and Merak and Sakteng in the east would not be linked by road, he said. A road connection to Merak and Sakteng, he said, would bring the community less benefit.

“We want to develop them through tourism,” he said, adding that, if they were connected with road, tourists would only drive up to Merak and Sakteng, and after a brief sight seeing, complain about the cold and return to Trashigang to spend the night. Besides that would cause cultural dilution of the nomadic community, he said.

Instead, Lyonchhoen proposed that the two communities be saved for trekkers from which locals could earn better revenues. Incomes, he said could start with horse rides to Merak and Sakteng, rents from tourist lodges built with government funding and from the food they served.

The DPT government, in the next two years, is planning an MBBS college in the country, with assistance from India, which would not just provide opportunities for Bhutanese students aspiring to becomes doctors but also address the shortage of doctors. “We’ll turn Bhutan into a world class service hub,” the prime minister said.

He said many Bhutanese visited hospitals in Bangkok for medical check ups spending large sums of money every year. Similarly, the government and the private sector people could together build such services, which will save Bhutanese from having to travel to places like Bangkok, Kolkata and Vellore. “While the services will be free for Bhutanese, we could charge people coming for check ups from neighbouring nations,” he said.

On tourism, Lyonchhoen said that the government was planning to bring in some 100,000 tourists as they opened access from Gelephu and Samdrupjongkhar.

For Gelephu it was an opportunity, he said, and urged them to construct standard hotels. “When standards are raised, we can expect higher revenues,” he said. “Resorts like Aman and Uma charge between US$ 5,000 and US$ 7,000 a night, and tourists are willing to pay that given the country’s exoticism.”

Touching on foreign direct investments (FDI), the prime minister said that, while local private financial institutions like Bhutan Insurance have already started, they were encouraging international financial institutions in the market.

He said that more banks would lead to competitive services. “Initially our local banks would throw numerous reasons when people asked for reduction in interest rates,” Lyonchhoen said. “Just a hint of Punjab bank opening soon and they’ve improved their services.”

The prime minister also shared his plans to brand Bhutan as an organic food producer. “Unlike many countries, which grow genetically modified food, ours is pure and organic and for that we needn’t look anywhere else for market, India will use our exports,” he said.

Lyonchhoen said they were preparing a system to remedy civil servants’ existing attitude towards work of procrastinating until the last moment. “We’ll reward civil servants based on performance,” he said.

All these plans, including the hydropower projects, Lyonchhoen said, were geared towards fulfilling the last promise the DPT government had made – creating full employment.

“World over if 5 percent of the population are unemployed they still consider it full employment, in Bhutan it is 2.5 percent,” he said. “We have two years in government and, if we fail to create full employment by then, the people have the right to act upon the government they elected.”

One of the most important promises his government made, he said, was to lay a strong foundation for democracy and leave a system, which future governments could follow or build upon. “Democracy is taking strong roots. ,For it to grow, people will have to work together with the government they elected,” he said.

But, without the presence of political parties in the constituencies, it was difficult for a fledgling democracy to take shape. He was referring to the lack of state funds to run the DPT offices in the constituencoes. “We need funds for offices, staff and equipment in every constituency,” Lyonchhoen said. He reasoned that, if people were unhappy about certain aspects of the government, there was no avenue to take their complaints to. The elected representatives, he said, were in the capital making and passing laws, discussing matters of national interest and heading various ministries.

“When people become skeptical and the gap between the people and its government widens,” he said. “Doubts take over trust in government, which over time gives way to upheaval, certainly not a thing to wish for.”

Citing examples of foreign countries, Lyonchhoen said that the state provided funds for parties to run their offices with lesser amounts for opposition parties.

“Here we are asking for equal amount of funding for both parties,” the Lyonchhoen said, adding that the request had been rendered unconstitutional at the parliament and, although the DPT government outnumbered the opposition, they retreated. “Now our party is on the verge of collapse,” he said.