Bhutan's DHI Keen To Work With Khazanah

By M.Saraswathi THIMPU (BHUTAN), May 28 (Bernama) -- Druk Holdings & Investment Ltd (DHI), the investment arm of Bhutan government, is keen to work with Khazanah Nasional Bhd, if the latter is interested in investing in the country. "We are open to the idea if they are interested in investing in Bhutan," DHI’s chief executive officer, Karma Yonten said. He said there were a number of areas in which Bhutan was seeking foreign direct investments (FDIs), namely wellness resort development and an education city, which is to have a 100 per cent green campus -- a main criteria for any investment in Bhutan. "About 400 hectares of land in addition to other incentives is to be provided by the royal Government," he said during a briefing to ambassadors and high commissioners based in Dhaka and New Delhi and who represented 12 countries. Malaysia’s high commissioner to India, Tan Seng Sung was also present. Strategically located between two rising economies -- China and India -- the country is also wooing investments in data centre related businesses, renewable energy, organic farming as well as alternative building materials to reduce dependence on timber for construction. In an interview with Bernama, Yonten revealed that if a collaboration took place between DHI and Khazanah, it would not be the first interaction for both entities. "We did visit Khazanah to know how it was set up as a government investment arm. They had a lot of reforms in the corporate sector in Malaysia and we went there to learn what they had been doing as part of a transformation process," he said. DHI, which was set up only in 2007, is also keen to partake in Khazanah's training programmes. "We are also keen to attend some of their training but I think they are busy training their own directors and the training is not open to outsiders yet," he said. A landlocked country, Bhutan was deliberately closed to foreigners until 1974. Following its move to open up, it is now keen to secure a portion of global FDI in accordance to its principles of an environmentally friendly country. It is promoting itself as not only as an investment friendly and politically stable nation, but also as a less corrupted nation. "We are endorsed by Transparency International as the least corrupted country in the Indian subcontinent and I think it is one of the qualities that will attract foreign investors," its Ministry of Economic Affairs' Secretary, Dasho Sonam Tshering said. Foreign investors can have maximum equity holdings of between 51 per cent and 100 per cent. Companies can also own land and 100 per cent equity for some activities under priority list, he said. Bhutan's FDI policy prohibits foreign investments in gambling, tobacco products, media and broadcasting, wholesale, retail and micro trade, mining for sale in raw form, hotel below three star and general health services. Khazanah Nasional is the investment holding arm of the Government of Malaysia and is empowered as the Government's strategic investor in new industries and markets. --BERNAMA