Thimphu:Round Table Conference : statement by Co-Chirperson

Kuzuzangpo -Ia and good morning

I am very pleased to welcome you to this Seventh Round Table Meeting of the Royal Government of Bhutan and international development partners.

On behalf of the development palmer community, I would like to express our deepest gratitude to His Majesty the King, Jigme Singye Wangchuclc who so uniquely embodies the hopes and dreams of the entire nation, for providing us the opportunity to be in this beautiful country.

I also would like to thank Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba, the Head of Government and
Chairman of the Lhengve Zhungtshog, for his admirable speech, and through him, the Royal Government of Bhutan for the hospitality and the excellent arrangements for this Meeting.

This Round Table Meeting is an historic event, not only because it is the first time ever that a Round Table Meeting is being held in the partner country itself, but because Bhutan is poised on the cusp of unprecedented change as it enters the new millennium. The RTM is also timely, as it takes place when the global community is preparing for the UN Conference for the decennial review of LDCs, which takes place in mid-2001.

We, the development partners, thus highly appreciate the opportunity to engage in an open and constructive dialogue with the Royal Government on your key development challenges. It is now up to all of us to ensure that we use these two days productively, by being focussed, concrete, and substantive in our deliberations. The choice of issues for discussion, all cross-cutting, are appropriate, and will help us to address development challenges from a holistic perspective.

I would like to commend the Royal Government, particularly the Department of Aid and Debt Management, Ministry of Finance, for its role in the preparation of the excellent background document as well as for co-ordinating and hosting this meeting.DADM has done, together with all national partners, a magnificent job.

With the concept of Gross National Happiness, Bhutan has presented us with a unique vision, and the clearest statement of the goal of development. This provides a frame for our ensuing discussions.

For us in the UN System, this is totally in consonance with our core mandate of a human-centred approach to development, as embodied in the basic documents guiding our work, starting with the UN Charter and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This human-centred approach is central to the work of the UN System in Bhutan, as seen in the United Nations System’s Common Country Assessment (CCA) in Bhutan and its upcoming United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF).

Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Participants,

The pursuit of Gross National Happiness directly translates into the Royal
Government’s commitment to address the issue of poverty, the first theme that we shall be discussing tomorrow, for poverty, in all its dimensions, is a major constraint to the achievement of happiness. The RTM document, now known as the “Happiness Document” in the development partner community, rightly portrays poverty as being more than inadequate income. It is about lack of access to basic social services, and about insecurity and vulnerability to shocks, especially natural disasters. It is about the fundamental lack of voice and representation as well as self-esteem.

As the “Happiness Document” recognises, lack of accurate information on the poverty situation is one of the key constraints towards developing appropriate anti-poverty strategies at the geog level. We thus commend the Royal Government’s decision to undertake a geog-level poverty study, starting with the collection and analysis of existing data. Available information, including the analysis undertaken by the UN System in the Common Country Assessment; indicates significant disparities in poverty and other human development indicators among regions. As the “Bhutan 2020” document points out, an “inclusive” process in development has been one of Bhutan’s development assets. We might thus discuss the issue of reducing disparities, and in particular, on reaching out to vulnerable groups, including the emerging ranks
of the urban poor. We encourage the Royal Government to continue to give special attention to children’s needs and girls’ education.

We shall be discussing the topic of infrastructure together with poverty; especially critical for poverty reduction in Bhutan is the further development of farm roads, a prerequisite for attaining sustainable livelihood objectives, bringing communities out of isolation and expanding people’s choices. Food security and diversification of livelihoods are other critical dimensions of the poverty reduction strategy.

It is commendable that the Royal Government of Bhutan is tackling the problem of rapid population growth on a “war footing”; such growth can nullify whatever gains are made in reducing poverty, putting enormous strains on services. Family planning services need to be expanded and extended, but as part of a package of services addressing reproductive health. Given the mobility of sections of the Bhutanese population, accelerated initiatives for HIV/AIDS awareness are called for.

Given the high growth rate, 57% of the Bhutanese population is under 25 years of
age. Generating opportunities for youth and providing young people with decent work is thus a key challenge for Bhutan. The “Happiness Document” discusses the mismatch between employment opportunities and the supply of labour. Even greater emphasis on vocational skills training may be needed to help young Bhutanese realistically interact with the rapidly changing employment environment.

Lack of suitable employment opportunities is accelerating the urbanisation process, creating intense pressures on cities and towns. Several development partners are supporting the Royal Government’s efforts to tackle this issue. A holistic approach is necessary here: how development occurs in secondary towns will affect the primary urban areas of Thimphu and Phuentsholing, and vice versa.

Key to the problem of addressing the employment issue is the need to accelerate the development of the private sector. What are the enabling environment measures to which the Government needs to give priority? What are the means to nurture entrepreneurship and management skills? What is needed to develop financial markets? These may be some of the issues we wish to discuss.

Our discussion of the private sector would need to be linked to the issue of
globalisation -- the opportunities as well as the challenges that this brings to Bhutan. Indeed, Bhutan has already taken a number of key steps in this regard, perhaps most significantly its application toward entry into the World Trade Organisation. No doubt this process calls for major capacity-building activities. UNDP stands ready to provide support for that process, as we are doing in several other Asian countries.

This can also be undertaken in the context of the Integrated Framework for technical assistance on trade -related matters to LDCs, in which UNDP, along with World Bank, IJNCTAD, WTO, ITC and IMF, is a partner.

In this regard, I am pleased to note the participation of several representatives of
countries that are not DAC/OECD donor countries. Technical collaboration with
countries that have more recently undergone the challenges of joining global regimes would no doubt be most useful.

Another key dimension of globalisation is the growing digital divide, and Bhutan has taken steps to address this through the introduction of the Internet and enhanced computer education. Information Technology offers great opportunities as a tool for increasing the efficiency and transparency of public administration and for enhancing the quality of health and education services. As a means of communicating key development messages to rural communities, radio and extension services continue to be vital.

The mass media also play an important role in creating a vibrant civil society, which, in turn, is a key component of good governance. Along with decentralisation, to which the Royal Government has given priority attention, there are various other dimensions of good governance that have a critical impact for achieving all other development objectives.

The Royal Government has taken steps to devolve authority and human resources from the centre to the dzongkhag level. We might discuss how the dzongkhags will be strengthened through additional resources, both financial and human, to carry out their development tasks, particularly the task of geog-based planning, as well as how these resources will be raised.

Another vital part of good governance is protection and promotion of human rights. The Millennium Summit held in September this year, with participation of heads of State and Government and leaders of 191 nations, including our Chair, Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba, declared that “no effort would be spared to strive for the full protection and promotion in all our countries of civil, political, economic, social and cultural tights for all."

Like others, we join in hoping for an early resolution to the refugee problem that has strained relations between Bhutan and Nepal for so long. In the spirit of the
Millennium Summit Declaration, which resolved “to strengthen international co-
operation, including burden sharing in, and the co-ordination of humanitarian
assistance to, countries hosting refugees and to help all refugees and displaced
persons to return voluntarily to their homes, in safety and dignity, and to be smoothly reintegrated into their societies,” we in UNDP stand ready to assist the Royal Government if and when requested to prepare for the reintegration of the returnees.

Honourable Ministers, Distinguished Participants,

Unlike the Sixth RTM and its predecessors, this is not a resource mobilisation
meeting, but a forum for dialogue, and an opportunity, for the first time, for all donors to come and see for themselves the country’s significant achievements as well as its problems.

Now, the challenge to all of us is to build on the momentum of this Round Table
Meeting and strengthen the process of co-ordination and collaboration in support of the Royal Government’s development priorities. We hope that we can come up with proposals for further enhancing aid co-ordination under Government leadership. Further, we hope that; as a follow -up to the RTM and other aid consultation processes, the development partners will be able to contribute toward the preparation of the Ninth Five Year Plan.

I look forward to informal, active, substantive discussions and engagement of all
development partners over the next two days. Amid Bhutan’s fast-changing social and political environment; this Round Table Meeting is aptly timed to accommodate a comprehensive response by all international donors. Let us provide such a response in support of Gross National Happiness and our common humanity.

Thank you and Tashi Delek.