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State of the Nation STATE OF THE NATION SECOND SESSION THE THIRD PARLIAMENT OF BHUTAN JUNE 26, 2019 DR LOTAY TSHERING PRIME MINISTER ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN STATE OF THE NATION SECOND SESSION THE THIRD PARLIAMENT OF BHUTAN JUNE 26, 2019 DR LOTAY TSHERING PRIME MINISTER ROYAL GOVERNMENT OF BHUTAN Looking ahead, we have a new five-year plan, and a great number of responsibilities of national importance before us. We “ must work together in order to build an extraordinary, strong, secure and peaceful future for Bhutan.” His Majesty The Druk Gyalpo National Day, Samtse December 17, 2018 ༄༅། །འབྲུག་୲་᭼ས་རྒྱལ་ ཁྲི་རབས་辔་པ་ འὲགས་捺ད་ ༧ ୺་སར་讣མ་རྒྱལ་དབང་ཕྱུག་མ᭼ག་୲་བ讟ན་བ筴གས། ༠ ꍼ་鮭སྟི།། དͼན་མ᭼ག་让་ག魴མ་སྐྱབས་གནས་རྒྱ་མ歼་蝲ས། །ད୺་轺གས་རྟེན་ འབྱུང་དམ་པ荲་མ᭼ག་རྩོལ་བས། །ས་སྐྱོང་འὲགས་捺ད་୺་སར་མཚན་ཅན་གྱི། སྐུ་歺་蝴ན་བ讟ན་མངའ་ཐང་རྒྱས་པར་鍼ག། །བ᝼མ་辡ན་䍴གས་རྗེ荲་དབང་ཕྱུག་ ᭺ན་卼་蝲ས། །བྱིན་讳བས་བ䝴ད་རྩི荲་ཆར་རྒྱུན་讣མ་ʹན་ཕབ། །捲་དབང་᭼ས་རྒྱལ་ དམ་པ荲་སྐུ་歺་བ讟ན། །ཆབ་སྲིད་མངའ་ཐང་དར་筲ང་རྒྱས་པར་鍼ག། །སྙིགས་䝴ས་ འགྲོ་མ୼ན་པ䞨་ͱ་ར་蝲ས། །འ᭲་捺ད་བ䝺་᭺ན་གྲུབ་པ荲་མ᭼ག་སྦྱིན་པས། །捲་ དབང་᭼ས་རྒྱལ་དམ་པ荲་སྐུ་歺་བ讟ན། །ཆབ་སྲིད་མངའ་ཐང་དར་筲ང་རྒྱས་པར་鍼ག། སྐྱབས་མ᭼ག་ངག་དབང་讣མ་པར་རྒྱལ་པ་蝲ས། །གསང་ག魴མ་རྡོ་རྗེ་དབང་བསྐུར་ 捲་བསླུ་བས། །捲་དབང་᭼ས་རྒྱལ་དམ་པ荲་སྐུ་歺་བ讟ན། །ཆབ་སྲིད་མངའ་ཐང་དར་ 筲ང་རྒྱས་པར་鍼ག། །ཕན་བ䝺荲་འབྱུང་གནས་རྒྱལ་བ荲་བ鮟ན་པ་འ坺ལ། །རྒྱལ་ བློན་འབངས་འݼར་དམ་གཙང་མ䍴ན་འབྲེལ་ཟབ། །བ䝺་སྐྱིད་坴ན་歼གས་དཔལ་ 蝼ན་ད୴ང་䝴་འཕྱུར། །ལྗོངས་འ䝲་འཛམ་གླིང་ʹན་㽴་མ潺ས་འགྱུར་ᝲག། If you want to know your past life, look at your present condition. If you want to know“ your future life, look at your present actions.” Guru Padmasambhava State of the Nation 2019 Contents Embracing the past, celebrating the present, progressing to future Section I : In Gratitude 08 Introduction 09 In gratitude 10 The journey so far 15 The third government 17 Section II : State of our Nation 19 State of our health 20 State of our education 24 State of our economy 30 Our Priority Sectors 36 Poverty scenario 44 State of our culture 48 State of our environment 52 Our public infrastructure and services 56 Our governance 60 Status of our women and children 64 State of our news media 68 Our foreign relations 72 Section III : Way ahead 76 7 Section I In Gratitude With hearts full of gratitude, we would like to acknowledge all the accomplishments of the past, and also draw lessons from it. State of the Nation 2019 Introduction t is a distinct honour and privilege for responsibilities with the enlightened me to present on this auspicious day, guidance from the Throne and blessing of the State of the Nation Report to His our guardian deities. IMajesty The Druk Gyalpo, the Parliament From learning the roles and and the people of Bhutan. responsibilities of stakeholders both This is the first State of the Nation Report within and outside the government and I present as the Prime Minister of the figuring out how the system worked, the third democratically elected government Cabinet ministers and I have come a long of this great nation of ours. way in learning the ropes. I thank Honourable Speaker, Honourable We are grateful to everyone for seeing us Chairperson of the National Council, through a swift transition, and allowing Honourable Chief Justice of the Supreme us time to settle down. Court, Honourable Leader of Opposition The foundation laid over seven months Party, Honourable Members of the is now strong for us to launch into Parliament, the remaining years of our Diplomatic Corps, While we are truly humbled tenure with greater members of the by this great honour we asked clarity and confidence. media and people Back then, our of Bhutan for the ourselves; will we be able to motivation was simple. opportunity to fulfill this precious mandate? present the report. For being a Bhutanese and having received Seven months ago, so much from the when the people country, it was a of Bhutan pressed buttons to exercise natural duty to return in service. their rights in a democracy gifted by the But today, as I stand before my King, Throne, and gave us the sacred mandate country and the people, a realisation of governance, a blend of excitement and dawns that we have a pact. diffidence set in. In that, we all share the responsibility of While we were truly humbled by this transforming our nation and our lives great honour, we asked ourselves; will we for the better, with my government at the be able to fulfill this precious mandate? wheel. But the moment His Majesty blessed It is evident that some responsibilities us, as we received the dakyen on shroud heavier on the third government. November 7, 2018, we were set free of all Bruised by differences along party lines in insecurities. the past elections, people mirror so much hope and expectations from us. We felt empowered to embrace the 9 State of the Nation 2019 There has not been a single day since of our beloved Monarchs, translate the I took office, that I am not reminded hopes of our people, and work towards of eager and trusting faces from the achieving the dreams of our nation. campaign days. I owe to each of them. As we are all united in purpose to serve I know the task ahead is onerous but I the Tsa Wa Sum together, I remain secure also know it is not impossible, if we strive in the thought that we will receive the with sincerity. gracious support and wise counsel of all This is a rare opportunity we have branches of government, constitutional received and in every act and every word bodies, media, private sector and the I utter, I shall do so to pursue the visions public in carrying our mandate. In gratitude ࿇ Our beacon, our King enlightened Monarchs every time major decisions for nation and the people have espite fear that these words could to be made. reduce the overwhelming sense During my interactions with people in of gratitude we deeply hold, all parts of the country, particularly in DI would like to thank His Majesty The pursuit of this mandate of governance, Druk Gyalpo for being our constant and the deep reverence for our Monarchs was reassuring source of wisdom, the moral clearly evident. center that holds us together as a nation. In this journey of democracy and Every time we fall back on the peaceful progress, His Majesty is our wisdom of Constitution, which nation’s conscience and the shining beacon that provides us the critical sense we have lost count by now, we are of direction. implicitly seeking guidance from With each passing day of governance the Throne. in the democratic set up, the role our Monarchs play in securing the peace and Every citizen of our country owes an unity of this nation, the wise and timely undivided debt of gratitude to His decisions made over the years, becomes Majesty for the wellbeing and security we more pronounced. all enjoy. Every time we fall back on the wisdom Today, on behalf of the people of of Constitution, which we have lost Bhutan, I humbly offer our deepest count by now, we are implicitly seeking gratitude to His Majesty, for the tireless guidance from the Throne. We have the and compassionate endeavours for the good fortune to be able to turn to the wellbeing of the people and in the interest 10 State of the Nation 2019 of our country. bear their irreparable loss. His Majesty’s presence during the His Majesty also offered prayers at the opening ceremony of this Parliament Tashichhoedzong, and commanded session, at a time of great personal loss special prayers across the country in and grief with the passing away of His memory of the victims of bomb attacks in beloved grandfather, Yab Dasho Ugyen Sri Lanka in April this year. Dorji, was truly humbling. In such times, just as disasters like Nepal It is a testimony to His Majesty’s selfless earthquake in 2015, our compassionate devotion to his people and commitment King leads the country in expressing to deepening our democracy. We are solidarity with the world and promoting greatly inspired to rededicate ourselves our country’s image as a caring, friendly to deliver our sacred responsibilities as and peace loving. people’s representatives in the service of Meanwhile, it was a moment of national our nation. pride as United Nations Development May I also take this opportunity to Programme presented a special award offer our deepest recognising His condolence to In times of disasters, the Majesty’s leadership His Majesty and compassion and consideration in advancing human our Royal Family of His Majesty greatly alleviates development and as we pray for the wellbeing and Late Yab Dasho the pain and suffering of all happiness of the Ugyen Dorji, an those who are affected. people of Bhutan. inspiring figure This is fitting tribute who led a full by the international life contributing body to His Majesty greatly to our spiritual and cultural for his commitment to peace and human heritage. progress. The auspicious signs witnessed by many The award stood for three major Human at the time of his passing and subsequent Development Achievements: rites serve as testimony. His Majesty’s championing of the holistic In times of disasters, the compassion development paradigm of Gross National and consideration of His Majesty greatly Happiness, His Majesty’s leadership in alleviates the pain and suffering of all environment conservation and climate those who are affected.
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