More than 80 cottage and small industries entrepreneurs from Thimphu and Haa participated in the 3rd Gakyed Gatoen, the Festival of Happiness in Thimphu yesterday.
The festival for the development of the Cottage and Small Industries (CSI) was first launched in 2016 to enhance the production and marketing skills of rural entrepreneurs.
It is a part of an initiative called Decentralized Hands-on Program Exhibition, D-HOPE which aspires to help entrepreneurs to showcase a live production process of various local products to visitors and customers.
The festival intends to celebrate the joys of self-employment and promotes locally made products through exhibitions and catalogues. At the event, various entrepreneurs from Thimphu and Haa exhibited their local products.
“Creativity and innovation should be given an opportunity and this is how we should be supporting them. We need more force, more brain and more willingness from our young entrepreneurs,” Economic Affairs Minister Loknath Sharma said.
So far D-HOPE has trained over 40 participants on community capacity, rural enterprise development theory and concepts in Japan and Thailand.
“The project teaches us how to work, how to communicate through various workshops and training. Also, they help us in getting international market exposures,” Gyempo Wangchuk, a participant, said.
“After implementing the D-HOPE project in our community, people started to make masks and bamboo baskets. It has helped us in reviving the age-old tradition,” Tshering Dem, another participant, said.
The Department of Cottage and Small Industries under Minister of Economic Affairs is implementing the project with support from Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
For now, the project has been implemented in Thimphu, Paro, Haa and Punakha. They are now planning to replicate the project in other dzongkhags as well.
