“Much of what we have achieved with Gross National Happiness (GNH) has been possible because we are small,” said the Prime Minister Jigmi Y. Thinely. Lyonchhoen was speaking at the Conference of the Forum of Small States held yesterday at the UN Headquarters in New York.
The Conference was organized by the Permanent Mission of Singapore to commemorate 20 years since its establishment in 1992.
The conference held on the theme “Small States and their Drive to Development,” was opened by the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.
Among the participants were the President of 67th UN General Assembly and US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
Delivering his keynote address, Lyonchhoen provided an overview of the concept of GNH and elaborated how Bhutan has been able to make progress through the pursuit of this policy.
Lyonchhoen spoke about how Bhutan as a small state, has pursued an unconventional development path that has promoted domestic progress and is contributing to the search of the international community for an alternative development paradigm.
“There is growing dissatisfaction with the state of our world. More and more academics, economists, civil society and ordinary citizens are persuading policy makers to acknowledge the mistake of having neglected the higher need for human wellbeing as opposed to unsustainable economic growth.”
Lyonchhoen also highlighted the critical importance of the principles of UN to small states.
Lyonchhoen further said without the UN, the small states have no voice, space or right to be heard, to participate and to contribute.
“Without it, we could become silent spectators as the big powers play out their games that shape our destiny.” He said we are in danger of becoming increasingly exposed to the actions of neither larger countries that may find neither reason to be concerned nor the opportunity to be informed of the consequences of their actions on those that they deem inconsequential.
The Forum of Small States is a diverse, non-ideological and informal grouping of states. It has a membership of 105 UN Member States.
