Key highlights from the Hon'ble Prime Minister's keynote address during the celebration of International Youth Day 2019

During the observation of International Youth Day on 12th August 2019, the Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr. Lotay Tshering made his vision for education loud and clear. Since the theme for the event was “Transforming Education”, the main focus of the day was on how to make our current education system more relevant to the emerging needs of the 21st century. He called on all the relevant agencies to come together and work towards making education more appropriate and relevant for young people so that they would have the knowledge and skills necessary for survival in the globalized world. His keynote address basically revolved around the following issues:

International Youth Day 2016

“We did not inherit the Earth from our ancestors; we just borrowed it for the future”. This was the key message conveyed to the youth of Bhutan during the International Youth Day celebration at Samdrup Jongkhar on 12th August 2016. Personally, it was a great privilege for me to be part of the team from the Youth Center Division, Department of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Education to leave for Samdrup Jongkhar to coordinate the event. Against the warning of incessant Monsoon rain and the threats of terrorist attacks in the Indian State of Assam, we hit the road on 7th August 2016 from Thimphu to celebrate this year’s International Youth Day with the youth of Samdrup Jongkhar on 12th August 2016. The International Youth Day has been observed in Bhutan since 2010 to recognize the potentials of young people and to celebrate their key achievements in various fields. But for five consecutive years, we celebrated the day only in Thimphu and hence, those youth living in other Dzongkhags could not get the opportunity to be part of it. So this year, for the first time in six years, we decided to take the event out of Thimphu. In line with the UN theme for the day “Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty by Achieving Sustainable Development through Sustainable Production and Consumption”, we decided to collaborate with Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative (SJI (, a civil society organization that focuses on GNH-based developmental activities especially in rural communities to achieve sustainable development and poverty eradication. So this was the main reason why we chose to travel all the way to Samdrup Jongkhar to celebrate the event this year.

Message for the youth of Bhutan on International Youth Day 2015

The observance of International Youth Day 2015 today on the theme “Youth Civic Engagement” gives us a special opportunity to reflect on and recognize the potential of our youth as valuable human and social capital resources. Bhutan is a small country with just over 700,000 population. Yet, the Royal Government of Bhutan has understood one thing throughout the history of the country, the dynamic strengths of our youth. Young people make up a significant portion of Bhutanese population. The latest statistics according to the report on Sexual and Reproductive Health of Adolescents and Youth (NSB, 2015) indicates that about 56 percent of Bhutanese people are below the age of 25. Because of this, the Royal Government has been placing so much importance on the wellbeing of our youth and has been investing a huge amount of resources on promoting youth development programs and services in the country.