Scheduled for September 2011
IT Park Update30 July, 2009 - Druk
holdings and investment (DHI) and Assetz property, a joint venture, was
awarded the contract to design, build, finance, own, and operate
Bhutan’s first information technology (IT) park for 30 years, after
which the lease would be automatically renewed for two more terms.
The proposal was evaluated by two government committees before being sent to the World Bank for final approval.
Department of information and technology (DIT) officials said the evaluation process had been fast tracked by almost two weeks. DIT’s deputy director, Kezang, said evaluation of the proposal was supposed to take a month but had been completed in just two weeks.
Asked whether requirements had been reduced for the only bidder, DIT officials said check and balance procedures had been followed, with even the World Bank submitting a ‘no objection’.
The company passed criteria, such as having a minimum net worth of USD 2.5m, developed two IT park projects in the last three years, and generated an annual turnover of at least USD 5m during the three years of IT park development.
The joint venture company has also proposed that Bhutanese nationals will be sent to Bangalore for training, after which they would be employed at the IT park.
Although 10 companies showed interested in the project, nine pulled out after becoming aware of the government’s requirements. Even after DIT obtained approval for 100 percent foreign direct investment, most companies did not opt for Bhutan.
DIT’s director, Tenzin Chhoeda, said this was because better incentives were offered in the region. He pointed out that India was also aggressively marketing itself as an IT hub, but with better advantages than Bhutan.
The next step for the joint venture company will be to register under the Companies Act of Bhutan and submit its design proposals to the Thimphu city corporation.
Construction is scheduled to begin in October, but DIT’s deputy director, Kezang, said it would, most likely, start only early next year. The IT park is expected to be completed by September 2011.
Once completed, the IT park is expected to achieve one of the government’s goals of increasing productive employment through the promotion of enterprise development in the IT sector. DIT’s Kezang said at least 700 Bhutanese nationals would be directly employed at the park. He also said that, for every Bhutanese directly employed at the park, at least four would be indirectly employed.
Tenzin Chhoeda said many Indian companies had already expressed interest in using the IT park. 20 percent occupancy of the IT park is already guaranteed by the government, leasing 10,000 sq ft of the total 50,000 sq ft at a total cost of USD 2m.
Defining the IT park, Kezang said, “Instead of playgrounds, we’ll just have a bunch of IT companies in a few state of the art buildings.”
