Bhutan yesterday said it would invest US$1 billion from national cryptocurrency reserves to develop a “Mindfulness City,” which it hopes will become an economic hub for the tiny Himalayan nation.
Bhutan, a Buddhist-majority nation squeezed between giants India and China, champions a policy of prioritizing “Gross National Happiness” over growth.
However, that has not helped the government deal with widespread unemployment, forcing thousands of young people to leave the country.
Photo: Reuters
As part of broader efforts to reverse that trend by soliciting foreign investment, the landlocked kingdom in 2023 announced much-hyped plans for its “Gelephu Mindfulness City” (GMC), a special economic zone close to the Indian border.
Carbon-negative Bhutan has also aggressively promoted hydropower projects, earning substantial revenue by exporting electricity to energy-hungry India.
At the same time it has utilized the cheap power for its own drive to mine cryptocurrency, especially bitcoin.
“I must ensure that every Bhutanese is a custodian, stakeholder and beneficiary of GMC,” King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck said yesterday in a speech to mark the country’s national day.
“To support this policy, I am announcing today the allocation of up to 10,000 BTC [bitcoin], valued at approximately [US]$1 billion. This commitment is for our people, our youth, and our nation,” he said.
The king in 2023 said that Gelephu would be a “Mindfulness City, encompassing conscious and sustainable businesses, inspired by Buddhist spiritual heritage.”
Bhutan’s GDP per capita is about US$3,718, according to the World Bank.
Its state-run Druk Holding and Investments invested US$539 million — nearly one-fifth of the total GDP — to establish cryptocurrency operations in 2021-2022, World Bank data showed.
It has since developed sizeable crypto holdings, although the exact value is not public.
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