Cabinet approves 1,000-acre land

February 18 – The cabinet on Tuesday approved a grant of about 1,000 acres of land to Druk holding and investments (DHI) to be used as an equity in the proposal to build a knowledge city in Bhutan by the Indian-based company, Infinity techno parks.

The land will enable DHI to partner in the project, the cost of which is expected to run into billions of ngultrums.

Cabinet ministers agreed that Bhutan must do its best to attract outside investment by creating a conducive environment within the country. The economies of most countries, they said, were driven by foreign direct investment (FDI) and Bhutan must revise its FDI policy sooner to make it investor-friendly, and not handle them on a case by case basis. Cabinet ministers also agreed that Bhutan must finalise its economic development policy as soon as possible and possibly come up with an FDI-friendly policy. “Without FDI, we can’t develop,” said Lyonpo Yeshey Zimba.

It was spelt out that the education city was in sync with the country’s education policies, thus the need to expedite the process.

Infinity earlier proposed to invest one billion dollars for the education city. “The size of the project is huge and DHI wouldn’t be able to partner with Infinity without using the land as their equity,” said the prime minister.

The project, by far the largest FDI investment proposal, aims to bring in 15 to 30 top universities, along with 40,000 foreign students, into the 1000-acre education city. The Infinity group chairman, Ravindra Chamaria, presented a ‘package proposal” designed for a similar project in India. “If we dilly-dally, investors will lose their interest,” said the prime minister, while another minister pointed out that not having a stable policy is “hazardous”.

“If we don’t put land, we have to put money,” said Lyonpo Yeshey Zimaba. “Using land is the cheapest and the most logical thing to do.”

However, the location of the project is not finalised. A proposed location in Phobjikha was shot down and REC was directed to explore the location in Wang Sisina, Thimphu, where it surveyed to establish a university.

The revenue for the project is expected to come through developing and leasing various educational facilities to universities or companies. “Bhutan has the right environment for such a project because of its political stability and pristine environment,” said Tenzin Rigden from the prime minister’s office during a press briefing.

Although the government has approved the land, it has instructed DHI to do further studies.

Education minister, Lyonpo Thakur Singh Powdyel, called education city a fascinating development within Bhutan. On the benefits of the having such a hub, he said, Bhutan will be winning the lion’s share.

“We’ve been talking about Bhutan becoming a knowledge hub and this is an area in which Bhutan could capitalise,” he said.

The minister said with a world-class centre in Bhutan, the country will have branches of world-class universities and colleges right within our own territory. “They’ll bring in examples of good practices. We’ll stand to gain in terms of our being able to participate in the intellectual exploration these institutions are known for,” he said. “We’ll also benefit through job creation that Infinity will make possible. We also feel that our national intellectual profile will be enhanced. The coming of Infinity and a number of world-class colleges and institutions will be a wonderful investment.”

Infinity first formally brought up the proposal to the government in a meeting in June 2009 with the ministry of economic affairs and later the ministry of education.

The chairperson of a committee formed to look into the project, economic affairs secretary, Dasho Sonam Tshering, said a task force was formed to look into the project. He said that the task force is looking into a clear mechanism of bidding procedures. “As far as the task force is concerned, we’ll work out a clear procedure, based on which we’ll let interested groups participate,” said the secretary. He said that he was unaware of the cabinet’s decision.

“The education itself is looking into the kind of system to follow.” the secretary said. “REC and the education ministry is working on an education guideline.”

source: kuensel