February 19: The two-day 10th Round Table Meeting (RTM) for Bhutan successfully concluded on February 18 in Thimphu.

The RTM is the highest level of donor coordination between the Royal Government and its development partners.

Over 130 participants including 83 delegates representing 14 countries, 20 multilateral agencies and 4 NGOs as well as senior government officials, attended the meeting.

The meeting was co-chaired by Lyonpo Thinley Gyamtsho, Minister for Education and Mr. David Lockwood, Acting Regional Director for UNDP.

The Bhutanese delegation made a series of presentations relating to Bhutan’s transition to parliamentary democracy, progress on the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) and poverty reduction, Strategies and Priorities of the Tenth Five Year Plan and Developing the GNH Index.

Presentations were also made on Macro Economic Framework and New Initiatives to Enhance Public Expenditure Management, Public-private Partnership, Human Resource Development & Employment Opportunities and the issue of the people in the camps in eastern Nepal.

The development partners commended the bold steps initiated by His Majesty towards the introduction of a Democratic Constitutional Monarchy aimed at promoting a system of governance that is more responsive and accountable to the people. They expressed satisfaction at the progress achieved in the implementation of the 9th Five Year Plan.

Development partners reaffirmed their commitment to continue their support towards addressing the emerging challenges facing Bhutan in ensuring a smooth transition to parliamentary democracy, at the same time as continuing support for the reduction of poverty.

The focus of the discussions was on Bhutan’s 10th Five Year Plan, which will be the first Plan to be implemented under the reign of His Majesty the Fifth King of Bhutan, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and the first elected government under parliamentary democracy.

It was noted that ensuring successful implementation of the 10th Plan is important towards building people’s confidence in the new system of governance.

Mr. David Lockwood in his concluding remarks said over the last two days, Bhutan’s development partners expressed their support for the overarching goals of the tenth five year plan.

In his concluding remarks, Lyonpo Thinley Gyamtsho said Bhutan will make continued efforts to enhance accountability and transparency by further strengthening our systems and procedures.