Back to news
12 Sep 2017 | News

Strengthening Ties with the Private Sector in Bhutan

Delegates from the Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI), a private sector body comprising of members from the Bhutanese business community, visited the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) headquarters in Kathmandu on 30 August 2017.

The visit was the first BCCI exposure trip organized outside Bhutan. It followed the June 2017 signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between BCCI and ICIMOD. The MoU was a commitment to strengthening private sector engagement in Bhutan through collaborative action in relation to ongoing BCCI and ICIMOD activities.

1 min Read

70% Complete
BCCI representatives at ICIMOD Photo Credit: Utsav Maden/ICIMOD

ICIMOD is committed to collaborating with private sector bodies in the Hindu Kush Himalaya to ensure sustainable development in the region. The delegation of more than 40 Bhutanese dzongkhag (district) representatives was headed by BCCI Secretary General Phub Tshering.

Basanta Shrestha, Director Strategic Cooperation, ICIMOD, welcomed the delegates. In his remarks, Shrestha stressed on the importance of fostering close collaborations with various businesses in Bhutan to upscale and improve the livelihoods of mountain people. BCCI Secretary General Tshering said that the BCCI and ICIMOD can work together to strengthen sustainable business opportunities and improve livelihoods in Bhutan. He said, “BCCI is confident that ICIMOD is the perfect partner for us. It will help us gain technical knowledge on value chains and market linkages, capacity building for mountain communities, and enterprise development for agro-based small- and medium-scale enterprises.”

Tshering emphasized that the partnership with ICIMOD would help Bhutan create business leaders who are agents for change in the future. Following the remarks, BCCI delegates had an insightful interaction session with ICIMOD colleagues working with various initiatives where they learned about the various ICIMOD activities in Bhutan. The session provided the delegates an opportunity to understand and explore the areas for future collaboration with ICIMOD.


Phub Tshering, Secretary General of BCCI, speaking to BCCI and ICIMOD representatives
Photo Credit: Utsav Maden/ICIMOD

As part of their business exposure visit, the BCCI delegates also visited the ICIMOD Knowledge Park in Godavari to learn about innovative technologies, mountain farming, and other practices that useful for sustainable development.

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related content

Continue exploring this topic

2 Jun 2016 News
Building Local Capacities for Managing Springsheds and Reviving Springs

Springs are the primary source of water for many communities living in mid-hills of Nepal.  Changes in social and economic ...

23 Aug 2016 News
Assessment Tools Manage Water Resources Better

More than twenty water-resource management practitioners and researchers from China, In-dia and Nepal participated in a five-day training on the ...

19 Oct 2022 News
Kailash CAFE 2.0: Sharing knowledge of a sacred landscape

The Kailash Sacred Landscape region attracts researchers from various disciplines, which was evident in the variety of topics presented at ...

13 Jan 2017 Atmosphere Initiative
ICIMOD Developing Better Tools for Analyzing Air Pollution

Technology for analyzing and addressing air pollution is evolving. New tools are currently in development that can collect better data ...

12 Oct 2015 News
Scientists assess wetland ecosystems services on top of the world

  In August 2015, a team consisting of experts from China’s Yunnan Institute of Environmental Sciences and ICIMOD carried out a ...

27 Jul 2015 HKPL
National Technical Consultation Meeting in Pakistan

ICIMOD, in collaboration with thegovernment of Kyber Pakhtunkhawa, hosted a National Technical Consultation meeting — Karakoram-Pamir-Wakhan Transboundary Conservation and Development ...

10 Dec 2015 News
HICAP South-South Dialogue on Managing Wetlands in the Himalayas

ICIMOD, as a regional intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing centre in the Hindu Kush Himalayan region, has taken various steps ...

3 Jul 2015 News
Two senior ICIMOD staff in Silk Road think tank

ICIMOD’s Director Programme Operations Dr Eklabya Sharma and Livelihoods Theme Leader Dr Golam Rasul have been named members of the Silk Road ...