Dream comes closer to reality

The Chiphen Rigpel Project, Bhutan’s bedrock of an IT-enabled knowledge society, came closer to reality yesterday as it celebrated its year-long achievements.

Speaking at the celebrations, Prime Minister Jigmi Y Thinley said Bhutan’s journey has been full of dreams, and one such significant dream has been to promote Bhutan as a world class ICT-driven service economy.

“Transforming a society is no easy task, but that is what we have set out to do. And in just one year we have achieved a lot in transforming the Bhutanese society,” he said.

The dream of converting Bhutan into a knowledge society became a reality with the signing of an agreement when the Indian prime minister came to Bhutan for the 16th Saarc Summit last year. The human capacity building programme launched by the prime ministers of the two countries would enable Bhutan to become a knowledge economy within the next five years.

The programme encompasses training of the country’s leadership in preparing for e-governance, bringing ICT and ICT-enabled education to its schools and tertiary institutions, training of teachers, providing youth with IT skills to improve employability, and creating minimally-invasive education opportunities to students across the country.

To date, the project has achieved many significant milestones that include training of Bhutanese leaders, civil servants, and corporate and private sector employees; providing computer education in schools, colleges, and institutes under the labour ministry and Youth Development Fund; setting up teacher training centres; and holding IT literacy programmes for the dratshang. The project has reached out to over 50,000 Bhutanese from all walks of life.

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To mark the achievement, awards of recognition were given to 57 Bhutanese – 17 awards of excellence to students, 10 awards of outstanding service to service providers, and 37 awards of appreciation to various Bhutanese officials and three to NIIT officials.

The 13-year-old Dawa Namgyal, a Class VII topper from Yebilaptsa Middle Secondary School in Zhemgang, who proudly received his award from the communications minister, said he had never seen a computer until he got enrolled in his present school.

When he was announced the topper among Class VII students across the country in computer subject, he said he felt something within him which he couldn’t describe. Though from a remote place, he says he is better exposed with the usage of ICT.

The NIIT chairman, Rajendra S Pawar, said the first experience with people across the whole range of activities have been positive. “Of the many projects that we have done, the one in Bhutan involved our heart in addition to the intellect required. It’s a societal project and needs to be embraced by every local citizen,” he said.

The foundation has been set, most infrastructures are in place, experiences are beginning to come up. In this light, the chairman said the leaders will have to give directions to those who are getting these IT capacities. “The fruit comes out only when people start using the capacity,” he said.

The prime minister said the government is thinking of a second phase to this programme, which could run parallel to the phase one programme. He hopes to take up this matter with the Indian prime minister on the sidelines of the 17th Saarc Summit in the Maldives this November.

Lyonchhen will request his Indian counterpart to support Bhutan in the global information society (GIS) programme which would enable the Bhutanese policy and decision makers and development workers with information and knowledge vital for everyday decision making.

The project has a budget outlay of Nu 2.05 billion, fully funded by the Indian government.

By Sonam Pelden