The Loden Foundation

Ashe Kunzang Choden, one of the trustees of Loden opened the training programme welcoming each of the resource persons and the participants for the crash course. She also highlighted on the general background, aims & objectives and the activities being carried out by Loden Foundation. - Dorjee Trashi, the co-ordinator of the Loden Foundation supplemented Ashi's statement specifically emphasizing on the Loden Entrepreneurship Programme. This programme aims to train young Bhutanese men and women in the entrepreneurial ventures providing them moral and technical support and capital funds to start their project. The co-ordinator also submitted a brief report on the seven entrepreneurial projects that were supported by Loden Foundation in 2008. He said that he is proud to mention that the all the business projects that were supported by Loden made remarkable progress since launch.

The training programme which was held in the conference hall of Institute for Management Studies, established by a group of private individuals recently in Olakha, was attended by 75 aspiring young participants from different parts of the country. Some of the participants came all the way from Phuntsholing, Dagana, Trongsa and Paro. There were about 31 females and 44 males with wide rage of background who intends to start their own small scale businesses. Among the participants 60% of them were already employed in corporations, private organisations, business activities while 40% of them were still hunting for a job.

During the two day crash course, the participants were trained on the basic skills, motivations and attributes needed by successful entrepreneurs, and on how to write a good business plan .Mr. Gerard Tardy, an experienced entrepreneur and the key person behind LEP, instructed the participants on the challenges and reward of entrepreneurship . The key lecturers included Mr. Hans Keller who lives in Bhutan and has a worldwide experience in hotel management, Mr. Pema Wangdhee and Mr Karma Tobgay from RIM and Mr. Norbu Wangchuk, currently the faculty member of the Institute for Management Studies. They instructed the participants on, operational procedure and personnel, financial analysis and basic accounts, marketing and competition.  Mr. Dorji Wangchuk, a successful Bhutanese entrepreneur, and the founder of Centennial radio and Lop Kinley Gyeltshen, the founder of Language Institute shared their inspirational business experience with the participants. They were also joined by Mrs. Bimla Rai founder of Niche Financial Service and Mr. Yenten Jamtsho founder of Bhutan Classified, two applicant entrepreneurs selected by LEP in 2008, who answered questions from participants.

The feed back forms collected at the end of the two days course show that the training programme was found to be very interactive and provided very practical information and skills to the participants. It provided also a great opportunity to clarify how the capital fund competition for soft loans organized by LEP will work  in 2009. Mr Gerard Tardy indicated that Loden would be happy to support more business projects outside Thimphu, this year.