Who’s got Bhutan’s X-factor?
Finding singing talents via well watched tv-shows is not just exclusive for Western countries: Bhutan just as well has its own versions of the X-factor and ‘The voice of….’. Based on last year’s massive succes, very soon the second edition of the singing show competition ‘Druk Superstar’ will go live. Yet the show doesn’t aim at unknown talents from all corners of the country; it’s the well-known singers that already have established a career, who will participate in ‘Druk Superstar’. According to one of the organisers, the show will be uniqe and quiete unlike other talent shows. A mere 22 contestants will perform, singing zhungdra, boedra and rigsar songs. Every Saturday and Sunday Druk Superstar will be nationally live broadcasted. Read more

Bhutan welcomes increasing number of tourists
Even though Bhutan isn’t a country confronted yet with mass tourism, more and more people discover the secret of her authentic beauty and pristine nature. Last year a record of 40.873 tourists arrived in the kingdom by plane: far more than the estimated 35.000 tourists. The Tourism Council of Bhutan (TBC) announced that besides the 12.410 regional tourists visiting Bhutan in 2010, the kingdom welcomed 28.463 international tourists for leisure or business. Over 90 percent of them came for holidays to the country of the thundering dragon. Besides these so called ‘high-end tourists’ an unknown number of regional leisure tourists visited Bhutan by road. The major increase of tourists proves the succes of tourism initiatives like marketing, promotion and higher levels of service.
The growing tourism numbers are beneficial to Bhutan’s national economy: 2600 more jobs were generated in the tourism sector to over 17.800. In addition to these directly tourism-related employments, the blossoming tourism industry has lead to an approximate 11.000 indirect jobs in restaurants, business and taxi drivers. A further increase of tourist numbers are expected by simplifying tourist processes through online visa processing and ticket booking, the waivering of special permits for heritage sites and offering credit card facilities. Read more

Aviation security roadmap for the region
Several countries in the region have decided to takes measures to increase secure air travel. In order to do so, a security roadmap will be developed. This was decided during the Regional Aviation Security Conference, attended by top security experts from several countries and global aviation bodies. Not only will they take measures to maximise air travel security, they will also enhance cooperation and exchange information on emerging threats. This was announced in a joint statement with detailed measures to effectively implement globally implemented security standards. In the joint statement is in detail described what actions the countries will take the coming years, like strengthening security screening procedures, developing enhanced security measures, promoting the security of travel documents and an increased co-operation between countries. Read more

Bhutan aims at its youth for economic growth
In order to make Bhutan an economically strong and selfdependent country, its government aims at Bhutan’s unemployed youth. The focus is to stimulate them to start a career in entrepreneurship, by providing concessional loans. In order to do so, the Ministry of labour has signed an agreement with Bhutan’s six financial institutions. The scheme which provides both self-employment as well as general employment in the long run, is part of a larger nationwide economic development policy. Bhutan’s youth who have completed the basic entrepreneurship course as well as the compre­hensive entrepreneurship course can receive a loan up to Nu 1 million to start their own (small) business. Read more