Economic System of Bhutan
Economic System Table:
Bhutan
Write a brief summary of the economic system of the country: Identify and explain the type of economic system.
Bhutan's economy is a rather small and traditional economy, with the majority of the workforce working within the agriculture and hydropower fields. Unlike many countries surrounding it, industrial production is almost extinct, due to the mountain ranges and issues building upon the terrain they are given. The hydropower sector is the most exported good, with India being the top client due to the close proximity. Bhutan's hydropower system is looking to become a spur for sustainable growth within their economy, but they are laden with the aforementioned construction and contracting problems that hinder any kind of meaningful construction being done due to the costs and inclement terrain.
Select three key economic indicators such as poverty rates, labor distribution, use of resources, etc. and analyze what this information says about the country, how does it compare to other countries, change over time, etc.
The first key economic indicators I have found is the division of labor statistics, which shows that agriculture dominates the Bhutanese market with a 57% hold on the labor force. Second is services with 22% and third is the industrial sector which comes in at 21%. Hydropower and logging dominate the Bhutanese market in terms of exports, and that shows within their distribution statistics.
The second key economic factor is a rather simple one, but it is one that is a touchstone statistic, their unemployment rate rings in at 2.6%, which even though it is a very small country is a great number comparatively. The 2.6% logs in at 18th in the world according to the CIA Factbook, which shows the introversion of this market and how the whole community works and pitches in for the greater good,
The third key economic fact for Bhutan would be their population under the poverty line statistic, which comes in at 12%. WIth 12% of the population living under the poverty line, it is a number that is a little high for the little amount of people there are comparatively, but they also do not have as much of a developed economy as most other countries, and they also stay within themselves when it comes to importing and exporting.
Identify the GDP - per capita for the country.
The GDP - per capita of Bhutan is $8,200 based upon a 2015 study. This rings in at 168th in the world.
Bhutan
Write a brief summary of the economic system of the country: Identify and explain the type of economic system.
Bhutan's economy is a rather small and traditional economy, with the majority of the workforce working within the agriculture and hydropower fields. Unlike many countries surrounding it, industrial production is almost extinct, due to the mountain ranges and issues building upon the terrain they are given. The hydropower sector is the most exported good, with India being the top client due to the close proximity. Bhutan's hydropower system is looking to become a spur for sustainable growth within their economy, but they are laden with the aforementioned construction and contracting problems that hinder any kind of meaningful construction being done due to the costs and inclement terrain.
Select three key economic indicators such as poverty rates, labor distribution, use of resources, etc. and analyze what this information says about the country, how does it compare to other countries, change over time, etc.
The first key economic indicators I have found is the division of labor statistics, which shows that agriculture dominates the Bhutanese market with a 57% hold on the labor force. Second is services with 22% and third is the industrial sector which comes in at 21%. Hydropower and logging dominate the Bhutanese market in terms of exports, and that shows within their distribution statistics.
The second key economic factor is a rather simple one, but it is one that is a touchstone statistic, their unemployment rate rings in at 2.6%, which even though it is a very small country is a great number comparatively. The 2.6% logs in at 18th in the world according to the CIA Factbook, which shows the introversion of this market and how the whole community works and pitches in for the greater good,
The third key economic fact for Bhutan would be their population under the poverty line statistic, which comes in at 12%. WIth 12% of the population living under the poverty line, it is a number that is a little high for the little amount of people there are comparatively, but they also do not have as much of a developed economy as most other countries, and they also stay within themselves when it comes to importing and exporting.
Identify the GDP - per capita for the country.
The GDP - per capita of Bhutan is $8,200 based upon a 2015 study. This rings in at 168th in the world.
- What will be produced with your country's resources?
2. How will these goods be produced?
Bhutan's grown crops are produced on a slew of the many many farms that operate in Bhutan and in the mountainsides. Those are all grown and produced by the local farmers and then sold through trade markets. The hydropower is produced by some local companies and a large amount by the government. Bhutan is a country that prides itself upon the fact that all farms are family owned, thus stimulating their own economy and growing the people up.
3. Who will use these goods?
Bhutan's potatoes and crops mostly go to two countries, Bangladesh and India, which is a great stimulant for the Bhutanese economy with the dense population within both countries. The hydropower goes to India within a trade deal they arranged, which in turn facilitates greater tourism and Indian business done within Bhutan.
4. Will these goods be exported?
Yes, the overwhelming majority of goods produced within Bhutan get exported, although it is only exported a short ways away. A large amount of crops grown are exported, although that doesn’t hurt the Bhutanese crop market due to the sheer amount of family owned farms that produce mass amounts. The hydropower all gets exported, which in turn most likely gets exported from India due to their massive exportation business, which could lead to more exposure for Bhutanese products.
Education in Bhutan: an assessment through the looking glass of the UN's Global Education Initiative
Education is the most integral part of any nation's prosperity, for without it nobody can prosper because they have not learned to. No matter if you are a major global player or the smallest nation in the world, education has to be the number one priority to ensure a future where we as United Nations can advance scientifically, monetarily and diplomatically and all coexist successfully. The UN's Global Education Initiative is a major step in the right direction, towards providing great education to any persons in the world, but also to improving educational systems overall and our in classroom progress. The triumvirate pillars of the Global Education Initiative are as follows: Put every child through school, improve the quality of learning overall, and foster global citizenship. While Bhutan is a country that is resistant to globalization and it's widespread effects on culture within it's borders, they have been able to embrace the Global Education Initiative and have improved the quality of their educational system from top to bottom. While there is always room for improvement, Bhutan has already shown their commitment to improving their educational system along the pillars given by the United Nations.
The first tenet adopted within the UN's Global EducationInitiative is a simple one, putting every child through school. This is a daunting task for some countries, but Bhutan has been able to be successful, posting a net enrollment rate of a tad over 85% according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (Net enrollment rate, WorldBank.org, 2014) Bhutan's educational origins lie within their cultural origins, with the first true schools being within Buddhist monasteries. This evolved into a totally monastic educational system, which was enacted until 1961 when the original “Five Year Plan” was enacted by the Bhutanese government, in an attempt to grow the economy and education in the face of greater contact with the outside world for the people of the enclosed country. These “Five Year Plan's” are Bhutan's way of surveying economic and educational systems of the world and every five years enacting procedures to boost economic growth in many different sectors, and boost education across the board, in hopes of getting to a totally modern educational system. As of 2015, there were 552 registered educational establishments within the country, which is an average of 267 students per school, with Bhutan's school age (10-19) demographic occupying 19.9% of the population. (Teaching In Bhutan, BhutanCanada Foundation) The number of educational institutions has seen steady growth, and will keep growing as the need for greater education reveals itself. With the numbers being what they are, I would say that Bhutan has adequately maintained the promise of providing education to every child, but there is obviously room for improvement. With a net enrollment rate of 85%, the work is cut out for Bhutan, but harnessing that 15% of outstanding school age children will be difficult with poverty levels rising within Bhutan. (Education In Bhutan, EPDC.org, 2014)
The second tenet is that of improving the quality of education across the board. In Bhutan specifically, the quality of education has been steadily improving since the 1960's. The third king of the modern iteration of the Bhutanese government, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, made English the language of education within Bhutan. Wangchuck realized that with the growing globalization, Bhutan would need to keep progressing themselves to keep up with the rapid development of the outside world, which lead to him instituting english in every learning establishment. With this change came another that was a far cry from traditional Bhutanese culture, the King started outsourcing for teaching, hiring a large percentage of the teachers from India, due to the widespread success of the Indian educational system at the time. These two new ideas were the building blocks for the new educational system within Bhutan, and it only has grown and prospered from there. Bhutan still has a small catch when it comes to providing a quality education to all citizens, with that being the cost of getting educated. Bhutan's poverty levels sit at a 12% rate, (Bhutan Poverty Assessment, WorldBank.org, 2014) which means that that 12% is at risk of being uneducated due to the costs of living clashing with the costs of education. This leaves this section out in the cold when it comes to education, and even though the 12% is a small number in comparison to much larger countries, with Bhutan's small population, that comes to roughly 90,473 which is a large amount of children not able to gain access to quality education. This is a worry due to these children not being able to get adequate early childhood education to start, and then not being able to get a quality primary education, which sets this sector of children back behind their peers when it comes to interpersonal skills and knowledge. Bhutan has been able to provide quality education for their masses, but they are still not servicing a key demographic of their population, which needs to improve to meet the UN's Global Education Initiative.
The third tenet of the Global Education Initiative is fostering a global citizenship, which Bhutan has clearly put a priority upon when it comes to education. While Bhutan is in a cultural struggle within their own walls debating the validity of greater globalization compared to the local culture they will erode as they get more globalized, education-wise they have been incredibly progressive and followed their global companions lead when it comes to educational advancement. Global citizenship is key when speaking about such an important topic as education, because the educational system as an abstract concept grows as each countries educational systems advance and adopt new procedures and teaching methods. While Bhutan still is in a fervent struggle to resist global citizenship as a cultural concept, the importing of teachers who have taught at higher education institutions across the globe has allowed them to grow their global citizenship while keeping the hallowed traditions of Bhutan safe and sound. With the access to these experienced and well traveled teachers, Bhutan has been able to inject global knowledge into their youth, imbuing them with a new sense of global citizenship, while giving them access to a wider breadth of knowledge expanding from just the information circulated within the borders.
I believe that it is hard for a country who have been historically closed off and a degree removed from the rest of modern advancing society, to fully embrace a sense of global citizenship due to the implications that their own incumbent culture will be pushed out to accommodate other shreds of culture that come through their walls and infest the cultural zeitgeist of the country. Bhutan is a country that has been able to slowly accept their role as a global citizen, and they have been able to step up in terms of improving their quality of learning, and putting every child into a schooling institution. While it is hard for even massive countries to fully comply with all three tenets of the UN's Global Education Initiative, Bhutan has been able to comply with all three adequately so far, with obvious room to grow. I see no reason to not believe that Bhutan is on the right course as far as education in the country goes, and that they will keep striving to improve their educational system across the board to ensure a prosperous Bhutan in the future.
Net enrollment rate, primary, both sexes (%). (2014). Retrieved November 9, 2016, from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR?locations=BT
Education In Bhutan. (2014). Retrieved November 09, 2016, from http://www.epdc.org/sites/default/files/documents/EPDC NEP_Bhutan.pdf
Teaching In Bhutan. (n.d.). Retrieved November 09, 2016, from http://teachinbhutan.org/teach/teaching-in-bhutan/?doing_wp_cron=1438290770.1046159267425537109375
Bhutan Poverty Assessment. (2014, March 25). Retrieved November 9, 2016, from http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/SAR/bhutan-poverty-assessment.pdf
The first tenet adopted within the UN's Global EducationInitiative is a simple one, putting every child through school. This is a daunting task for some countries, but Bhutan has been able to be successful, posting a net enrollment rate of a tad over 85% according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. (Net enrollment rate, WorldBank.org, 2014) Bhutan's educational origins lie within their cultural origins, with the first true schools being within Buddhist monasteries. This evolved into a totally monastic educational system, which was enacted until 1961 when the original “Five Year Plan” was enacted by the Bhutanese government, in an attempt to grow the economy and education in the face of greater contact with the outside world for the people of the enclosed country. These “Five Year Plan's” are Bhutan's way of surveying economic and educational systems of the world and every five years enacting procedures to boost economic growth in many different sectors, and boost education across the board, in hopes of getting to a totally modern educational system. As of 2015, there were 552 registered educational establishments within the country, which is an average of 267 students per school, with Bhutan's school age (10-19) demographic occupying 19.9% of the population. (Teaching In Bhutan, BhutanCanada Foundation) The number of educational institutions has seen steady growth, and will keep growing as the need for greater education reveals itself. With the numbers being what they are, I would say that Bhutan has adequately maintained the promise of providing education to every child, but there is obviously room for improvement. With a net enrollment rate of 85%, the work is cut out for Bhutan, but harnessing that 15% of outstanding school age children will be difficult with poverty levels rising within Bhutan. (Education In Bhutan, EPDC.org, 2014)
The second tenet is that of improving the quality of education across the board. In Bhutan specifically, the quality of education has been steadily improving since the 1960's. The third king of the modern iteration of the Bhutanese government, King Jigme Dorji Wangchuck, made English the language of education within Bhutan. Wangchuck realized that with the growing globalization, Bhutan would need to keep progressing themselves to keep up with the rapid development of the outside world, which lead to him instituting english in every learning establishment. With this change came another that was a far cry from traditional Bhutanese culture, the King started outsourcing for teaching, hiring a large percentage of the teachers from India, due to the widespread success of the Indian educational system at the time. These two new ideas were the building blocks for the new educational system within Bhutan, and it only has grown and prospered from there. Bhutan still has a small catch when it comes to providing a quality education to all citizens, with that being the cost of getting educated. Bhutan's poverty levels sit at a 12% rate, (Bhutan Poverty Assessment, WorldBank.org, 2014) which means that that 12% is at risk of being uneducated due to the costs of living clashing with the costs of education. This leaves this section out in the cold when it comes to education, and even though the 12% is a small number in comparison to much larger countries, with Bhutan's small population, that comes to roughly 90,473 which is a large amount of children not able to gain access to quality education. This is a worry due to these children not being able to get adequate early childhood education to start, and then not being able to get a quality primary education, which sets this sector of children back behind their peers when it comes to interpersonal skills and knowledge. Bhutan has been able to provide quality education for their masses, but they are still not servicing a key demographic of their population, which needs to improve to meet the UN's Global Education Initiative.
The third tenet of the Global Education Initiative is fostering a global citizenship, which Bhutan has clearly put a priority upon when it comes to education. While Bhutan is in a cultural struggle within their own walls debating the validity of greater globalization compared to the local culture they will erode as they get more globalized, education-wise they have been incredibly progressive and followed their global companions lead when it comes to educational advancement. Global citizenship is key when speaking about such an important topic as education, because the educational system as an abstract concept grows as each countries educational systems advance and adopt new procedures and teaching methods. While Bhutan still is in a fervent struggle to resist global citizenship as a cultural concept, the importing of teachers who have taught at higher education institutions across the globe has allowed them to grow their global citizenship while keeping the hallowed traditions of Bhutan safe and sound. With the access to these experienced and well traveled teachers, Bhutan has been able to inject global knowledge into their youth, imbuing them with a new sense of global citizenship, while giving them access to a wider breadth of knowledge expanding from just the information circulated within the borders.
I believe that it is hard for a country who have been historically closed off and a degree removed from the rest of modern advancing society, to fully embrace a sense of global citizenship due to the implications that their own incumbent culture will be pushed out to accommodate other shreds of culture that come through their walls and infest the cultural zeitgeist of the country. Bhutan is a country that has been able to slowly accept their role as a global citizen, and they have been able to step up in terms of improving their quality of learning, and putting every child into a schooling institution. While it is hard for even massive countries to fully comply with all three tenets of the UN's Global Education Initiative, Bhutan has been able to comply with all three adequately so far, with obvious room to grow. I see no reason to not believe that Bhutan is on the right course as far as education in the country goes, and that they will keep striving to improve their educational system across the board to ensure a prosperous Bhutan in the future.
Net enrollment rate, primary, both sexes (%). (2014). Retrieved November 9, 2016, from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR?locations=BT
Education In Bhutan. (2014). Retrieved November 09, 2016, from http://www.epdc.org/sites/default/files/documents/EPDC NEP_Bhutan.pdf
Teaching In Bhutan. (n.d.). Retrieved November 09, 2016, from http://teachinbhutan.org/teach/teaching-in-bhutan/?doing_wp_cron=1438290770.1046159267425537109375
Bhutan Poverty Assessment. (2014, March 25). Retrieved November 9, 2016, from http://www.worldbank.org/content/dam/Worldbank/document/SAR/bhutan-poverty-assessment.pdf
This first graph shows us the net enrollment rate within Bhutan from 1978, when they first started thoroughly tracking such statistics for education, through 2014 when their last education and poverty reports were released. This shows that the amount of children enrolled in primary schools has been steadily growing during throughout the aughts, and now in the 2010's we have seen a peak during 2012, and now we have had a small settling down at 85% after a bit of a economical decrease. This shows that Bhutan's educational system has been growing and gaining stability and legitimacy, and hopefully there will be more increases shown when we see the next educational report from the government of Bhutan.
Net enrollment rate, primary, both sexes (%). (2014). Retrieved November 9, 2016, from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.PRM.NENR?locations=BT |
The second visual aid I have for you is this map of Bhutan that is sectioned out into poverty rates within the cities of Bhutan. Now one might see this map and notice the four big sections of dark red which indicates a 52-69% poverty rate, but this is a misnomer, as all but one of the sections of dark red are the least populated areas of Bhutan. Bhutan's poverty level overall is 12%, and one can see that the most populated areas of Bhutan, the midwest, are mostly between 0-15% poverty levels. This indicates Bhutan's ability to economically serve their highest population areas, and the low poverty levels in this area indicates an ability to afford good schooling within Bhutan.
Bhutan Poverty Mapping. (n.d.). Retrieved November 09, 2016, from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/BHUTANEXTN/Images/306147-1284659227740/BhutanPovMappingGraphic.jpg |
Below is my newsletter on Bhutan:
rapackigcunewsletter.doc | |
File Size: | 253 kb |
File Type: | doc |