Development partners made strong commitments to help Bhutan achieve the goals and objectives of the 10th Five Year Plan during the Tenth Round Table Meeting, which concluded in Thimphu on February 18.
Over 130 participants, including 83 delegates, representing 14 countries, 20 multilateral agencies and 4 NGOs, and senior government officials attending the meeting agreed that ensuring successful implementation of the Tenth Plan was important to build people’s confidence in the new system of parliamentary democracy. The tenth plan (July 2008 -June 2013), which will be the first plan to be implemented under the reign of His Majesty, King Jigme Khesar, and the first elected government, was the focus of discussions during the two-day meeting.
The Bhutanese education minister, Lyonpo Thinley Gyamtsho, who chaired the meeting, and the acting UNDP assistant administrator and regional director for Asia and Pacific, Mr David E Lockwood, who co-chaired the meeting, in a joint statement after the meeting said: “Our requests for budgetary support from development partners to successfully implement the tenth plan was widely recognized, underpinning the democratic transition.”
At the start of the meeting, Mr David E Lockwood said that the success of the democratic transition would be jeopardized if development results did not keep pace with the aspirations of the electorate. “It’s common for electoral candidates to make promises that are often not met or not even realistic. But, for the new parliament to be credible, it’s important that development results on the ground are perceived to have increased in pace,” he said. “Therefore, it’s more important than ever that development partners give fullest support to the tenth plan, which estimates that a little over half of the plan outlay depends on external financing.”
The tenth plan outlay is estimated at Nu 141.692 billion and domestic revenues, including other receipts, are expected to be sufficient to fund only around 46.3 percent of it. According to the draft tenth plan, the country will still require external assistance grants to the tune of Nu 56 billion to help meet its capital expenditure in the tenth plan.
The prime minister, Lyonpo Kinzang Dorji, in his inaugural address on February 17, also said that the government would like to solicit the continued support and cooperation of development partners, because Bhutan faces the challenge of ensuring adequate and predictable resources to implement the tenth plan.
The Bhutanese delegation made a series of presentations relating to Bhutan’s transition to parliamentary democracy, progress on Millennium Development Goals and poverty reduction. Strategies and priorities of the tenth Five Year Plan and developing the GNH index were presented during the meeting. Presentations were also made on the issue of the people in the camps in eastern Nepal, on macro management, public private partnership, human resource development and employment opportunities.
A press release on the meeting stated that the development partners commended the steps initiated by His Majesty towards the introduction of a democratic constitutional monarchy. They reaffirmed their commitment to continue their support towards addressing the challenges facing Bhutan in ensuring a smooth transition to parliamentary democracy. They also committed their continuous support to reduce poverty. According to the chairpersons of the meeting, the development partners also expressed satisfaction at the progress achieved in the implementation of the Ninth Five Year Plan.
Lyonpo Thinley Gyamtsho, expressed appreciation to the development partners for their goodwill and support in his concluding remarks at the meeting. He said that the successful completion of the meeting provided a strong platform for the launch of the tenth five year plan starting July this year. “Once parliament approves the plan in March, it will be shared with all our development partners,” he said, adding that there would be close consultations with development partners to ensure that tenth plan cooperation and the tenth plan were finalised simultaneously.
Source: Kuenselonline
