Tsirang Dzongkhag proposes the facility to house homestays, agriculture, livestock and other economic activities
With not many takers for the Chanchay Cottage and Small Industries (CSI) park in Tsirang, the dzongkhag stakeholders are looking for a change in ingredients to be shelved out of the facility.
“The park is not working out like the way the Ministry has planned, so we thought why let the investments on infrastructures go in vain. We are planning for collaboration between different sectors that could eventually benefit the local people economically,” a dzongkhag official said.
Tsirang dzongkhag Economic Development Officer (EDO), Ugyen Dhendup said that for now, the Chanchay CSI park will be prioritized for productive utilization in various sectors. “In the short term, we aim to support promising farmers for agricultural activities and facilitate livestock production units for interested proponents.”
The dzongkhag is also famous for its various livestock products. For that, the livestock sector will also claim a stake in the park to promote and market those products.
The park could cater to the livestock farmers in the vicinity as well as other gewogs as well. “All livestock products like milk, cheese and butter could be well packaged and marketed from the park. People need not go anywhere to sell it once we set up the processing plants,” he added.
Additionally, the dzongkhag has plans to use the space for activities like homestays and meeting sites. “For the long term, we envision transforming it into an agriculture hub, contingent on support from the Building Resilient Commercial Smallholder Agriculture (BRECSA) and other stakeholders,” the EDO said.
“What we have proposed is for a hub where farmers can grow, develop, package and market their products all from within the park’s premises,” the EDO said. “This way, not only so many public and private resources will be saved, but farmers from the entire dzongkhag can bring their products here to be readily sold or marketed.”
Although the Department of Industry (DoI), which looks after the park, did not receive any formal proposals, the Director General (DG) said that the department will be happy to facilitate and support any individuals from the dzongkhag interested in starting cottage and small industries inside the park.
However, the DG shared that the area available in the park will not be adequate to plant and grow agriculture products.
The EDO said that they have verbally consulted the DoI and the Ministry to look into the matter as not many takers are coming forward to run the park.
Access to finance was deemed as the main hurdle, keeping investors at bay from the 1 acre CSI park. The Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment (MoICE) has repeatedly conceded that there are not enough takers for the vacant plots.
Of the 9 plots available, 3 plots have been allotted while 6 plots remained vacant. These include the manufacturing processed cheese and ice cream, production of fruit juices using local fruits, processing of meat, including sausage production, ham production, meat segmentation, packaging and marketing, production of fruit juices, and production of nutraceutical foods from organic raw materials.
Vacant plot announcements have been made in the past, and applicants have been provisionally allotted the land. However, many withdrew citing financial and personal reasons.
“Most of them withdrew because of difficulty in accessing finance as proponents do not have collateral to pledge for loans,” MoICE Secretary, Tashi Wangmo said.
She said that for the park to be successful, the private sector should be coming forward. “The government can only set up the facilities, which we have done even prior to the pandemic.”
“A common facility where packaging and labeling could be done is also under construction and will be operationalized soon. Not only the CSIs, but people from the nearby areas can also make use of the facility,” the Secretary added.
The park was planned under the pilot “CSI Industrial Park” of the Startup and CSI Development program in 2020 and was completed by July 2021.
Initially, in 2021, nine plots were allotted to prospective businesses. However, these plans failed when all nine businesses withdrew their proposals, primarily due to difficulties in securing loans amidst the moratorium and other COVID-19 related challenges.
The previous government stated that the construction work was impacted by the pandemic, and another reason was the high level of Non-Performing Loans (NPL) which caused the National CSI Development Bank and BDBL to freeze loans.
The new businesses faced challenges, particularly in obtaining food clearance certificates from the Bhutan Food and Drug Authority (BFDA). In response, the DoI has proactively engaged with BFDA, which has instructed its Tsirang office to issue provisional certificates to enable businesses to proceed with obtaining their business licenses.
Additionally, the Bhutan Power Corporation (BPC) has upgraded the transformer at the site to meet the power demands of the new industries, based on DoI’s request.
Although the basic amenities were reported to be completed during the first government’s tenure, not a single unit was established. The DoI also collaborated with other Dzongkhags and Gewogs to attract more applicants to the park, aiming to fully utilize the available plots and support the growth of the local economy.
The park is situated on a level ground which separates Semjong and Gosarling gewogs of Tsirang dzongkhag on the banks of the famous Chanchay river.
Spread over an area of 1 acre, the park is designed to accommodate approximately 14 CSIs. The project is worth approximately Nu 52 million and was aimed at leveraging Tsirang’s rich agricultural produce to boost local industry.
Tashi Namgyal from Tsirang
