The 10th Plan will be GNH-oriented
4 April 2008
Thimphu: A three-day symposium organised by the Gross National Happiness Commission (GNH) began this week with the objective of aligning the 10th Plan projects with the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT) manifesto and using GNH has the guiding factor.
“Political promises are beyond the scope of the 10th Five-year Plan budget. Some of them may not be feasible, while others may not be even desirable,” said Karma Tshiteem, Secretary of the GNH Commission, at the opening of the National Planning Symposium in Thimphu, yesterday.
Rinzin Dorji, Chief Planning Officer of GNH Commission, told Observer that it was a challenge. “While 90 percent of the party’s manifestoes are in line with the Tenth Plan, rest of the manifestoes come as a challenge to us,” he said. “But we are prepared to face the challenge.”
Earlier on during the campaigns, the political parties had said that the cost of promises that could not be met from the plan budget would be mobilised from outside. But observers had said that the political promises were too numerous and far-fetched to be realised with external funds.
At the symposium, which is markedly different from the previous planning meetings organised by the erstwhile Planning Commission, Karma Tshiteem outlined the priorities of the 10th Plan as a GNH-oriented and poverty-reduction-targeted plan in a new democratic setup. “Today, we have the luxury of choosing which direction to go in, and GNH shows the direction,” he said.
The GNH Commission Secretary pointed out some internal challenges such as poverty, narrow industrial base, growing unemployment, sluggish private sector, growing cost of social service delivery, and political changes.
He stressed on building the economy through enterprise, creativity, and innovation. “For a country like Bhutan, standing on our own feet is critical,” he said. “We cannot follow the traditional method of economic development – our focus must be on the people.”
Rinzin Dorji said the preparation and implementation of the 10th Plan was going to be different from the previous plans. He added that the symposium was aimed at inviting feedback on the various planning documents and processes such as the result-based management, annual grants, tied grants, functional and financial responsibilities of the government, and the planning and monitoring system that GNH commission had developed during the process of the preparation of the Tenth Plan.
Besides, the symposium will sensitise and brief the planners on the strategic framework of the 10th Plan as well as seek feedback on the best practices and on the lessons learnt from the Ninth Plan. The participants will discuss a strategic roadmap for the development at the local as well as the national level.
The highlights of some 14 papers being presented at the symposium include the strategic framework for the 10th Plan, roles and responsibilities of local governments and gewog administrative officers, local development plans, and Targeted Poverty Intervention, among others.
The Planning Officer of Zhemgang Dzongkhag, Bolanath Bhattarai, said the symposium would help solve coordination problems among agencies, dzongkhags, ministries, and gewogs besides helping the planners implement the 10th Plan effectively.
Sarpang Dzongkhag Planning Officer, Pema Tenzin, said the symposium gave a clear roadmap for the result-based 10th Plan. He added that while the previous plans were sector-based, the 10th Plan was cross-sectoral and broad-based. “The roadmap is drawn; we will move on,” he said.
Planning Officer of Mongar Dzongkhag, Lekey Wangdi, said, in the new democratic setup, capacity of local governments was crucial. “This symposium has come at the right time to enhance the capacity of local governments and to streamline the roles and responsibilities of gewog administration.
The National Planning Symposium is being attended by some 170 planning officers from the ministries, dzongkhags and agencies, and gewog administrative officers from across the country. The last symposium of this kind was organised by the erstwhile Planning Commission nine years ago.
Source: Bhutan Observer
