The European Union (EU) committed its support of 31 M Euros to Bhutan for the next EU programming period which begins from 2021 to 2027. According to the Gross National Happiness Commission’s Secretary, other development partners also assured their assistance.
The commitment was formally announced during the 15th Round Table Meeting held yesterday.
The EU support committed is regardless of the country’s graduation from the Least Developed Countries (LDC) category in 2023.
“With them we have this five year cooperation which actually officially concludes in 2020. But some of the activities are still ongoing so one major announcement was formally that irrespective of our graduation status, EU will continue to support Bhutan and they have already started working on our next phase of support which will go on from 2021 till 2027,” said Thinley Namgyel, the Secretary of GNHC.
The secretary added that Bhutan Trust Fund for Environmental Conservation has also committed USD 1.5 M to help the country overcome the deficit for this financial year.
Besides, the Asian Development Bank has already committed its support of USD 307 M for the government’s 12th Five Year Plan. Of this, USD 44 M is given as grants and the remaining as high concessional loans.
Foreign Minister Dr Tandi Dorji said the development partners have asked Bhutan to focus on the recovery of the economy from the COVID pandemic and on the sustainable LDC graduation.
“It’s not just sufficient to graduate but to be able to graduate sustainably and to at least if not go higher but at least to maintain the middle-income status. So, I think this will be the two-critical focus; one is recovery of economy from the COVID pandemic and second one is on the sustainable graduation process,” said Dr Tandi Dorji, the foreign minister.
The government allocated Nu 4bn for COVID-19 related activities last financial year. Similarly, Nu 3bn is allocated this financial year.
Sonam Pem
