A small, inland country sandwiched between India and China, Bhutan is perhaps best known for its “great happiness of its people.” This is an alternative that a country argues that it will understand economic development more fully than GDP.
But the country hopes to become known for more than just spiritual tourism and the Himalayan Mountains. Bhutan is currently hoping to attract foreign investment, promote new industries and enter the global economy.
It is a steep hill that climbs the isolated Himalayas and has recently been tackling brain drainage issues as young Bhutan travels abroad for new opportunities.
Ujjwal Deep Dahal, CEO of Druk Holdings and Investments (DHI), a sovereign wealth fund in Bhutan, said: He added that Bhutan and DHI need to “learn to engage with the world as we move.”
However, Bhutan and its sovereign wealth funds hope to leverage the country’s strengths, including cheap and widespread hydropower, according to global standards. The key to the country’s plan is Jereh Mindfulness City, a new zone that connects Bhutan with businesses in Southeast Asia.
The most prominent sovereign wealth funds, including those in Norway, Saudi Arabia and Singapore, are huge global investors. These funds move hundreds of millions of dollars of funds acquired from pensions, natural resources or forex reserves, investing in strategic industries for high returns.
DHI is smaller than these global giants. Much smaller.
Founded in late 2007, DHI manages approximately $3 billion in managed assets and owns stakes in 24 different Bhutanese companies.
In comparison, Singapore’s Temasek has $300 billion in managed assets and stocks in some of the nation’s most prominent companies, such as Singapore Airlines and DBS.
However, Dahar sees the opportunity with a small size of DHI. “Size doesn’t matter,” he said. Instead, DHI can focus on “efficiency and how we grow.” Still, he sees Temasek as a role model for DHI.
“We are largely looking at Temasek from a governance perspective and from a divestment perspective. But Bhutan’s economy and Singapore are completely different,” Dahar said. “We need to consider running DHI in a way that complements the challenge.”
Bhutan calculates the happiness of its citizens through a survey of 300 questions conducted every few years. The latest GNH index, released in May 2023, reported a score of 0.781 in 2022, exceeding the 0.743 reported in 2010.
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The country’s per capita GDP increased from $2,435 to $3,711 over the same period.
Economy pessimism means that countries with a population of less than 800,000 people are currently passing through the brain drain. Approximately 13,500 Bhutanese people, equivalent to 1.6% of the country’s total population, moved to Australia in 2023. This is a country still covered by forests, fighting a decline in income, lack of employment opportunities and increasing unemployment among young people.
Tourism is one of Bhutan’s main sources of income, but has yet to recover from the symbiotic pandemic. The country reported the arrival of 145,000 tourists last year. This is less than half of the 315,599 arrivals recorded in 2019. The country has a complex view of the tourism industry and is promoting a “low-value impact” tourism model to avoid emphasizing the country’s infrastructure.
DHI manages several companies that are key to the country’s economy, including Bhutan Power Corporation, Bhutan Bank, and Bhutan Telecom. And Dahar believes that DHI can become a platform for carving out Bhutan’s niche in today’s AI and internet economy.
Dahar, with an engineering and hydroelectric background, for example, hopes that Bhutan will become a place where green energy companies can explore “interesting technologies” such as pump storage and hydrogen power, and test their commercial viability.
“You can test it right away in Bhutan, solve problems in Bhutan and take global or regional issues,” claimed Dahar.
He is particularly focused on hydroelectric power generation, and is now the main source of Bhutan’s power generation. Bhutan currently has a current capacity of 2.5 gigawatts and an additional 3 gigawatts are under construction.
DHI also has a more unconventional bet. Bhutan is one of the world’s largest sovereigns of Bitcoin. The country began mining cryptocurrency in 2019, when it was worth just under $10,000. As of May 7, 2025, it is worth around $97,000.
Bitcoin mining is usually energy-intensive, but Dahar argues that the use of hydroelectric power and other green energy will help Bhutan crypto mining to offset carbon emissions elsewhere.
“Bitcoin is parallel with digital gold,” Dahar said, noting that the country’s cryptocurrency strategy is part of a diverse approach to alternative investment.
DHI, as Bhutan’s investment sector, is also supporting the development of Gelephu Mindfulness City, a specially managed area that it hopes to become the economic corridor of South and Southeast Asia. The city, which spans approximately 2,500 square kilometres, seeks to combine economic growth, sustainability and overall living, providing space for businesses in healthcare, technology and green energy.
“We are trying to bring innovation strategies to DHI, build startups with global founders, academics and innovators, and bring them together to build a startup culture and economy,” Dahar said.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.
