HONG KONG ¨C While much of the world is fixated on the quest for gross domestic product growth, wealth and modernity, Bhutan ¡ª a landlocked kingdom with a tiny population squeezed between India and China ¡ª has chosen a different path, emphasizing human happiness and well-being.
Does the Bhutan model hold the key to a prosperous, sustainable future for all?
In the 1970s, Bhutan¡¯s fourth king, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, declared that GDP was less important than ¡°Gross National Happiness¡± (GNH). After all, the goal of economic growth, as Bhutanese Prime Minister Lyonchhen Dasho Tshering Tobgay later put it, was always supposed to ensure people¡¯s ¡°contentment¡± and enable them to become ¡°better human beings, socially, economically and morally.¡±
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