As a country nestled in what many may refer to as “Land of the Gods”, one can understand where the philosophy of GNH comes from, however, not many understand Bhutan’s desire to utilize Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to realize its GNH potential and create equal opportunities for its citizens. Recent advances by the Royal government that encapsulate key steps to ensure that Bhutan becomes an information centric society is proof enough that this country can go a long way in proving its capabilities.

The Royal Government of Bhutan recently held a conference titled ICT for GNH in conjunction with 9.9 Media (The CTOForum) to bring to notice, to its neighbors, investors and supporters plans that can make it a hub for knowledge sourcing and off-shoring practices. The conference was planned around the inauguration of Bhutan’s first LEEDS certified IT park in the capital city of Thimphu.

The event saw attendance from some of Asia’s finest minds in the realm of technology and policy and was a melting ground of thoughts coming together on how Bhutan could utilize technology to fulfill its GNH potential.

ICT for Gross National Happiness

The Royal Government as part of its mission to realize GNH wishes to create opportunities for its people to evolve into a knowledge economy, using technology. In an attempt to do so, the government invited key delegates from India – seasoned technology practitioners – who could guide the government in understanding how to best use technology to boost the economy, and create sustainable growth for the nation. This council was even more important from the perspective of bringing to notice some of the things that could work against Bhutan while building out their ICT framework.

The Indian delegation was joined by key spokespersons from the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), executives from the World Bank – key agency responsible for funding the IT park, and delegates from Sri Lanka and Bangladesh to name a few.

The first day of the conference albeit an evening of celebrations, featured a talk by the Honorable Prime Minister of the Royal Government, Mr. Jigme Thinley. Mr. Thinley spoke about Bhutan and its beliefs, briefly touching upon what GNH means to Bhutan, and how the Bhutanese people need ICT so as to create opportunities for its people. He also stressed on some of the successful technology initiatives such as the Chiphen Rigpel project for ICT skills development, and Bhutan’s mature telecom networks, namely, Bhutan Telecom, and Tashi Cell, who are fully capable of world grade 3G services.

In addition to the above, the honorable prime minister also spoke about the need to further GNH as a concept and Bhutan’s work in conjunction with various agencies to build metrics so as to measure this index.

The second day of the conference featured speakers of the likes of Mr. Houlin Zhao, Dy. Secretary General, ITU; Arvind Sitaraman, President – Inclusive Growth, Cisco; Swami Manohar, MD, Limberlink technologies; Shafquat Haider, Chairman, CCI, SAARC Chamber of Commerce, Bangladesh; Amit Nath, Country Manager, Trend Micro; Mr. Andrew Ong, Integrated Regulatory Practice, Singapore and many such esteemed guests.

The day started with a session on ICT and GNH. It focused on how ICT can help in bringing together the vision of GNH with the help of speakers like Professor Richard Heeks, Director, Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester and Mr. Arvind Sitaraman, President of Inclusive Growth at Cisco. Professor Heeks spoke about how it is an imperative fro Bhutan to align its ICT vision with a high level development policy while Mr. Sitaraman touched upon some of the inclusion initiatives that Cisco has undertaken in rural Indian villages so as to highlight how a country like Bhutan can use these experiences to benefit at an early stage.

One aspect of the vision that Bhutan has for its development is to build an information society. With the telecom explosion that Bhutan has been experiencing for the last 7-8 years, even shepherds in the remotest parts of Bhutan are taking to mobile technologies and utilizing them for their benefits. This is a big step in development and the government plans to take it even further using ICT. The second session “ ICT and Information Society” focused on this aspect of growth.   

The session was chaired by Professor Heeks with panelists Swami Manohar, Dasho Kinley Dorji,     Secretary, Ministry of Information and Communication, Royal Government of Bhutan, and Anupam Saronwala, Program Director, IBM Research India. The session touched upon changing mindsets of the people while transitioning into a knowledge society without changes in culture or values.

Speaking on the metrics that define GNH, Dr. Eun-Ju Kim, Regional Director ITU spoke about the advancements that have been made in measuring the GNH index. She stressed upon how ICT could be used to ensure sustainable development for a nation and the role that the ITU plays in aiding GNH.

Moving ahead with the conference agenda, an interesting topic of discussion was that on how ICT can enable Good Governance. The session chaired by Leong Keng Thai, IDA, Singapore hosted speakers like Amit Nath, who has immense experience in governance with his experiences in India and South Asia. The session brought to light many of the finer aspects of governance with the aid of technology, and engaged the audience in an active discussion on challenges that are inherent to good governance and government policy.

Any conference is incomplete without active audience engagement. The concluding session of the second day of ICT for GNH saw Dr. Pramath Raj Sinha, Founder and MD, 9.9 Media engage the audience with their personal views on the current ICT readiness of Bhutan. While the audience helped in breaking down key requirements for off-shoring practices and a key challenge that Bhutan may face in adopting ICT. This concluding session, ICT for GNH: Roadmap for Bhutan featured some hard questions and views, however this was the reason this conference was held, so as to highlight a 3rd party perspective into what it takes to build an information society and a knowledge economy. These questions will shape the future of things to come in Bhutan, and will allow the government to have a deeper understanding of what it really takes to transition to ICT. The road ahead is rocky, but with a clear path and string vision, it isn’t impossible.

Thimphu IT Park: Bhutan’s first LEEDS Certified IT Hub

With everyone’s views out in the open, on the third day of the conference, Bhutan was ready to inaugurate its first LEEDS certified IT Park in Thimphu in the presence of all the delegates who helped the members of the Royal Government understand the intricacies of the ICT path.

The IT park which marks the first step in building Bhutan out to be an ICT hub was inaugurated by Dasho Kinley Dorji in the presence of the Queen mother of Bhutan, Ashi Dorji Wangmo Wangchuck. This inauguration marked the first step in commemorating Bhutans desire to embrace ICT and a giant step for the Bhutanese people since it is poised to be a hub of opportunity for the Bhutanese.