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

9 Dec 2016 News
Training to Measure Glaciers in Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Nepal

A four-day theoretical training on glacier mass balance monitoring was conducted from 25–28 October 2016 at the International Centre for ...

17 Nov 2015 News
Reviving the Science in Langtang Valley

  A small team of ICIMOD researchers recently returned to earthquake-ravaged Langtang Valley to rebuild and maintain the network of hydrological ...

6 Dec 2017 News
MOPE, EU, and ICIMOD host International Conference on Resilient HKH

Resilience is the ability of communities and ecosystems to be prepared for shocks, recover from shocks, and “bounce forward” to ...

17 Nov 2015 News
ICIMOD Hosts REDD+ Himalaya Workshop

  The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) under its regional REDD+ Himalaya initiative supported by the German Federal Ministry ...

Bridging Knowledge Gaps: the Effects of Air Pollution on Human Health

Parth Sarathi Mahapatra, a research analyst with the Atmosphere Initiative at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), says ...

5 Aug 2015 KSL
Community based chyura and beekeeping enterprise improves rural livelihoods

Chyura, also called the 'Indian Butter Tree' grows abundantly around KSL-CDI pilot villages in the Bin and Munakot blocks of Pithoragarh. Chyura ...

15 Sep 2016 News
HI-AWARE at the ’33rd International Geographical Congress’, 2016

Amina Maharjan, agricultural economist, and migration specialist with HI-AWARE, participated in the 33rd , held in Beijing between 21-25th August ...

18 May 2015 News
ICIMOD evaluates the hazards of upper Langtang Valley

ICIMOD has spent the past three weeks collaborating with an international team of scientists to evaluate the hazards that contributed ...