Question 19M.2.SL.TZ0.3a.i

Bhutan’s growth soars amid hydropower building boom

1. Bhutan is a developing Asian country, bordered by India and China. The government of Bhutan is mostly interventionist in its approach to economic growth and economic development. Situated in the Himalayan mountains, Bhutan has significant water resources that may be employed to generate hydropower.
   
   
2. The most significant intervention by the government is investment in the generation of hydropower. However, funding is not possible domestically. The hydropower projects are mostly financed by concessional long-term loans from India. Government borrowing to finance hydropower construction has made Bhutan the second-most indebted nation in Asia. Bhutan now has a high level of government debt, equal to 118 % of annual real gross domestic product (GDP).
   
   
3. The funding of Bhutan’s interventionist policies has created significant dependence on Indian tied aid. A condition of the aid is that Indian companies lead the infrastructure projects. The large amount of foreign aid has made achieving self-reliance difficult. At present, India finances nearly one-quarter of the Bhutan government’s budget expenditures.
   
   
4. When the projects are completed they will more than double Bhutan’s hydropower generation capacity and over 80 % of the power generated will be exported to India. Hydropower to India is Bhutan’s largest export, and the increased exports will lead to greater government revenue. Real GDP growth is expected to reach 11.7 % by 2019.
   
   
5. Another significant intervention by the government is the promotion of university education for as many young people as possible, coupled with the creation of government jobs to employ them. The present level of exporting hydropower to India has provided some government revenue to pay for government jobs. However, while the number of university graduates is growing each year, the number of government jobs has not been growing at the same rate.
   
   
6. In response to the current inability to provide enough jobs, the government is also implementing other programmes. Firstly, they are encouraging graduates to pursue employment in Bhutan’s small private sector, which is struggling to make a meaningful contribution to economic growth. Secondly, the government is promoting tourism, making it one of the most popular alternatives to government employment. Thirdly, the government is attempting to reduce red tape (excessive regulations) in areas such as industrial licensing, trade, labour markets and finance. This red tape is a barrier to foreign direct investment. Finally, the government is trying to make employment in agriculture more appealing. Bhutan’s climate means that it could be well-positioned to produce and export a variety of fruits.

[Source: adapted from Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook, Bhutan, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/theworld-
factbook/geos/bt.html, accessed 19 August 2017; White-collared, by Ross Adkin, 31 August 2016, Himal Southasian,
http://himalmag.com/white-collared-bhutan-thimphu-bureaucrats, accessed 19 August 2017; The World Bank: Bhutan,
https://data.worldbank.org/country/bhutan, © 2019 The World Bank Group, licenced under the Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0; and Bhutan growth soars amid hydropower building
boom, by Nidup Gyeltshen and Phuntsho Wangdi, August 17, 2017, https://asia.nikkei.com/Economy/Bhutan-growth-soarsamid-
hydropower-building-boom, accessed 19 August 2017]