Mar 29, 2014
In agreement: Panelists see eye to eye on the need to harmonise policies Summit: Participants, both local and international ones agreed on one thing during the closing of the three-day Better Business Summit yesterday – for it to translate into something tangible.
To start with, the need to harmonise government policies, rules and regulation and strengthen ministries and institutions was strongly felt.
This, a panelist during one of the sessions believed would help clear the many hurdles that stood between recommendations the summit listed and the achievements it [... Read More]
Mar 29, 2014
Schools: Fourteen schools have maintained their position as the country’s 40 best performing schools in the past two years.
Eight higher secondary and five middle secondary schools held their top 10 spots in the last two years.
None of the top 10 schools of 2012 in the class four to six level secured their positions last year. Only Wangchu MSS retained the PP to Class III top list.
Jallas PS, Ganglakhema PS, and Pemagatshel MSS are [... Read More]
Mar 29, 2014
Khar gewog: The third house in Pemagatshel to be damaged by windstorms Windstorm: While damages of the first windstorm are still being assessed, another storm damaged an additional house in Pemagatshel.
On March 26, a home in Khenzong under Khar gewog was damaged. Roofs of two houses were blown away by the March 19 windstom.
Royal insurance corporation of Bhutan (RICB) officials said the foundation of the house, damaged by the second storm, was already weakened by the first storm. It collapsed from one side and bore [... Read More]
Mar 29, 2014
Energy: The private sector is not happy with the government’s policy that enables the sector to participate in developing small hydropower projects (SHP) of only up to 5MW.
The alternative renewable energy policy (AREP) which was approved last year allows private investors to ‘self-identify’ all renewable energy (RE) projects, provided they bear the cost themselves.
AREP has targeted a minimum of 20MW by 2025 through solar, wind, biomass, and geo-thermal energy. It also includes SHPs.
According [... Read More]
Mar 29, 2014
When it comes to doing business, there are few places worse, it seems, than the likes of Myanmar, also known as Burma. That’s at least, according to the World Bank, which has Myanmar ranked as worst in Asia – at 182nd of 189 rated economies – on the ease of doing business. That’s even worse than 141st-ranked Bhutan.
Rounding out the “Top 5” for worst in Asia in The World Bank 2014 Doing Business report – [... Read More]
Mar 29, 2014
A layman’s (as opposed to academic) diagnosis of the state of health of our school system
PART THREE
The curriculum needs a turnaround, not a tinkering around with
THE first (but not last or least) attempt to tweak the curriculum, if I remember right, came about in the mid to late eighties. This was the well intentioned, but perhaps not thought through, ‘new approach to primary education’ or NAPE. Its aim, a step in the right direction, was [... Read More]
Mar 28, 2014
Agriculture ministry aims to produce 79,000MT of rice this year
Rice: Amidst reports of fallowing agricultural land in rural Bhutan, the agriculture ministry is planning to re-cultivate about 2,000 acres of wetland across the country this year.
Agriculture officials said this would be possible, as the ministry has constructed 13 irrigation canals in around the country.
Agriculture minister Yeshey Dorji said about 664 acres of land left fallow in Phuntshothang, Samdrupjongkhar, 100 acres in Punakha, 70 [... Read More]
Mar 28, 2014
But benefits from the sector is highly individualised
Summit: The mining sector, if done sustainably, could be one solution to the policy of not having to put all eggs in the hydropower basket and diversify the economy base.
Mining in the country, often associated with pollution, environmental degradation and conflict with the community, is economically more lucrative than hydropower, according to specialists at a panel discussion on “Resource Development: Extraction or Exploitation” at the on [... Read More]
Mar 28, 2014
Agriculture minister Yeshey Dorji exchanges the performance agreement with Prime Minister Tshering TobgayAgriculture ministry signs first agreement with the prime minister
Compact: By this time next year, agriculture ministry will produce 1,636 metric tonnes of oil seed.
The ministry will be evaluated and rated according to its performance.
Producing oil seed is a part of the many commitments agriculture minister Yeshey Dorji made in a performance agreement signed with Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay yesterday at the Gyelyong Tshokhang.
In the agreement, lyonpo Yeshey Dorji emphasised on six key objectives [... Read More]
Mar 28, 2014
SPD: With just over three months left for the financial year to end, local leaders in Trashigang are worried that activities planed under the small development program (SDP) in the current fiscal year would not be completed.
This is because none of the 17 activities, from maintenance work to water supply to farm road construction, could begin without funds. The dzongkhag has planned activities worth Nu54M in the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
The concerns also stem [... Read More]
