Bhutan being the second-highest recipient of financial assistance from the SAARC Development Fund (SDF), many more new projects on social sectors and infrastructure sectors are to be implemented soon.
Bhutan has been committed a fund of USD 32 M for current and future projects in the country. SDF has funded over 10 projects in Bhutan worth 9 Million US Dollar under its Social Window as grants.
The SDF in Bhutan under its social window has worked in areas ranging from newborn and maternal health, women empowerment, violence against children, agriculture to e-centres, home-based workers and livelihood enhancement of small scale farmers. However, the SDF is now also targeting to penetrate into infrastructural sectors such as renewable energy, information and communication technology, Druk Air, Hydropower and road connectivity among others.
“Infrastructure needs lots of money and for that SDF is a small funding institution. For this purpose, we are trying to mobilize some new funds also. We are in touch with bigger financial institutions including the Asian Development Bank, World Bank. They are showing interest to work with SDF. We are trying to position SDF as the central funding institution for South East Asia. Bhutan is one of the focus areas,” said Sunil Motiwal (PhD), the Chief Executive Officer for SDF.
The Prime Minister met with the officials from the SDF today and he also suggested to venture extensively into potential areas of agriculture and Cottage and Small Industries. He said very little agriculture-based business has been explored so far and the government is also emphasising on it under 12th Five Year Plan.
“We are targeting to work with bigger international institutions who are specialized in agriculture sectors like the World Food Programme. The project proposal is in our active consideration and we are going ahead with the project. We are adding a lot of nutrition values in some of the agriculture products such as rice in order to offer a value-added product for the school children and we are targeting thousands of children in Bhutan and millions of children in entire SAARC region,” the CEO added.
The SDF, since its inception in April 2010 by heads of the eight SAARC Member States, is mandated to build regional integration and economic cooperation through project funding in all the eight SAARC member states.
