Bhutan is often misinterpreted as the least developed country in South East Asia for a number of reasons. Firstly, they still live a very traditional life governed by religion and their first election wasn’t held until 2008. They still have a constitutional monarchy and some aspects of Bhutanese life seem heavily regulated. For example, tourists were not allowed into the country until 1974, TV was banned until 1999 and it’s the only country in the world where smoking is illegal and can lead to jail time.
However, this misrepresentation can be easily disputed, even if some of their laws seem backwards to a westerner, in numerous aspects we could take a leaf out of Bhutan’s book. The main reason being their environmental policies; in Bhutan, every citizen has a constitutional obligation to protect the environment. Sixty per cent of the country must be forest and the trees in Bhutan use more CO₂ than the people produce; they are the only country in the world to do this. Also, Bhutan only uses renewable energy that it produces using hydroelectric technology.
Bhutan is also perceived as poor when in fact only 2% of its population lives below the poverty line and it has some of the greatest freedom of spending and business in South East Asia. It has by far the least corruption of any South East Asian country and their government has managed to run an incredibly peaceful and stable country. These are just some of the reasons that the perception of Bhutan as being underdeveloped are simply false.
This misrepresentation can be damaging for any country because on the world stage they could be viewed as irrelevant to discussions. In the case of Bhutan, this is counter-productive because every country could learn from them in terms of renewable energy and environmental policy especially with climate change such a hot topic. Moreover, the ability of a country to live peacefully with low poverty levels without embracing capitalism and modernity can make an interesting case study to oppose assumptions about what it means to be developed and successful. Bhutan is a country that should be respected instead of looked down upon because even the most ‘developed’ countries can learn from them.
Going Places - Bhutan 