Mr./ Madam Chair, President of IFAD, Distinguished Governors and Delegates,

First of all, I would like to convey to this august gathering warm greetings and good wishes of His Majesty the King, the people and Government of Bhutan for the success of this important meeting.

It is with the greatest pleasure that I take note of IFAD’s contribution towards poverty alleviation in the world. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the outstanding contribution made by Mr. Fawzi Al Sultan to IFAD and thereby rural and agricultural development worldwide during his two consecutive terms as President. I am sure his contribution would have made immense difference to the lives of many poor people in the developing countries. I would also like to wish Mr. Al Sultan success and happiness in the future.

Mr./ Madam Chair

We all know that there are over 1.2 billion people living in abject poverty in the world today; a number that has been growing over the years. At the current rate, goals set by international fora such as the Social Summit and the World Food Summit to halve the number of the extreme poor by 2015 do not seem likely to be met. This situation is mainly attributed to lack of adequate resources and political will in many countries. We would, therefore like to call upon all concerned to redouble their efforts and join forces in combating poverty and hunger in the world.

Mr. / Madam Chair

Since the initiation of Bhutan-IFAD collaboration in 1980, several area-development projects aimed at rural development through agricultural interventions were implemented. We in Bhutan are very satisfied with this collaboration, as it has brought immense benefit to the lives and incomes of a large portion of our rural population. We feel that this success has been possible because we share the same vision of sustainable development and commitment to the poor and weak as enshrined in our long-term policy objective of Gross National Happiness. We hope that this collaboration will continue to grow in future.

Mr./Madam Chair

In Bhutan the policy of decentralisation was introduced by His Majesty the King in 1981 as a cornerstone principle guiding the direction of planned economic development in the country. We are now in the process of formulating our 9^th Five-Year Plan, which is scheduled to be launched in July 2002. A point of departure from previous Five-Year-Plans is the introduction of block-level plans primarily formulated by the local communities. It is my pleasure to report here that in this regard, the experience with the local development schemes and processes piloted through the Second Eastern Zone Agricultural Programme, currently under implementation with the financial support of IFAD is proving most useful and relevant.

Mr./Madam Chair

I read with great interest the document ‘Partnerships for Eradicating Rural Poverty’. In this connection I would like to point out that given the mountainous terrain of our country, the lack of rural access has emerged as the single largest obstacle to economic development in general and to poverty alleviation in particular. This assumes significant importance as at present over 79% of our population live in rural areas. The importance of this issue has also been highlighted in all public fora ranging from Block Development Meetings right up to the National Assembly Sessions. Diagnostic studies conducted in various areas also point to the need for infrastructure building in the rural areas. The Round Table Meeting of Bhutan’s donors held in Thimphu in October last year also noted that infrastructure development was closely associated with poverty alleviation in Bhutan and recommended that this issue receive priority attention in the 9^th Plan’s development programmes. I would therefore like to invite IFAD to assist Bhutan in the area of rural infrastructure development in the future with the aim of reducing poverty.

Mr./ Madam Chair

In conclusion, I would like to reiterate my country’s deepest appreciation for the valuable contribution made by IFAD to Bhutan’s economic development and wish every success in its future endeavours.

Thank you, and as we say in Bhutan, Tashi Delek!