The GovTech Agency proposed revising its target of training Bhutanese in digital skills during its Midterm Review today. The agency suggested reducing the target in the current five-year plan by 75 percent.
The agency’s target was to train and enable 400 thousand citizens to productively and safely use digital services by the end of the current Plan. However, as of March this year, only about seven thousand Bhutanese were trained. Of the Nu 910 M initially proposed to meet the target, the agency received only Nu 290 M. It was pointed out that training each participant costs around Nu 11,000. Moving forward, the GovTech Agency proposed to revise the target to one hundred thousand citizens.
However, the GovTech Agency aims to provide five thousandquality jobs in the digital sector. More than 1,200 jobs werecreated between July 2024 and February this year. This included the freelancers in the digital sector.
The GovTech Agency aims to contribute 300 million US dollars to the economy from the digital sector by the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan. The digital sector generated over 44 million US dollars as of June last year, against its annual target of 60 million US dollars.
Highlighting one of the key achievements, the GovTech Agency’s secretary said Bhutan’s standing has improved in the GovTech Maturity Index, which measures four key areas of core government systems, online public service delivery, digital citizen engagement and GovTech enablers. According to the World Bank’s 2025 survey, Bhutan is now placed in Category “A”, the highest level, indicating strong digital governance.
In terms of Artificial Intelligence, Bhutan’s maturity level currently stands at 2 out of 5, while Cybersecurity maturity improved from Level 1 to Level 2 last year.
In the health sector, the agency aims to have all doctors and health assistants treat patients using the electronic Patient Information System, or ePIS, by the end of the Plan period. As of March this year, ePIS adoption has already reached 90 percent nationwide.
The review also highlighted civil service attrition as a key challenge, with 68 resignations since 2023 and 13 more officials currently serving notice periods.
Devika Pradhan
