IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

The government is investing in ICT to bring public administration online. It will make it easier to get, for example, a security clearance certificate, which is an arduous affair today.

Department of information and technology (DIT) director Tenzin Chhoeda said that the online system will link every police station in the country with the ministry of home and cultural affairs. This will mean that an applicant’s information could be instantly obtainable at the time of request within a single day. It will go online this year.

Read more: Bhutan: Government goes online

To address the shortage of medical specialists in the country, the health ministry on April 16 launched two telemedicine projects, where an expert from India can diagnose and advise on the complex case of a critically ill Bhutanese patient – all via Internet and through video conferencing.

The prime minister Lyonchhoen Jigmi Y Thinley and the Indian ambassador to Bhutan Sudhir Vyas inaugurated the projects - SAARC telemedicine and rural telemedicine - during the ministry’s annual conference in Thimphu.

Read more: Bhutan: Towards hi-tech health care

Have you ever gone to Bhutan? It is basically a landlocked nation in South Asia, located at the eastern end of the Himalaya Mountains and is bordered to the south, east and west by the Republic of India and to the north by People’s Republic of China but is known for exquisiteness concurrently. The nation is a perfect blend of modernization with its ancient culture and traditions and has been regarded as one of the most peaceful areas in the planet. Moreover, only in 2006 Business Week rated Bhutan the happiest country in Asia and the eighth happiest country in the world.

Read more: Bhutan introduces telemedicine projects

A Nu 2.7 billion deal has been signed between the department of information technology (DIT) and India’s leading IT training company, the national institute for information technology (NIIT).

The agreement, signed in March, requires NIIT to provide funding worth Nu 2.7 billion to the DIT. NIIT is obtaining this fund from the government of India.

Read more: Bhutan: IT deal to train 12,000 civil servants