ARMIDALE is in talks with Bhutanese government officials to cement a 60-year relationship through a sister city relationship.
Bhutan, best known internationally for its Gross National Happiness index, is one of the world’s newest democracies and its capital Thimpu has a population of around 100,000 in the city and surrounding area.
The small country has been sending some of its brightest students to the University of New England for the last 60 years and many now hold positions as senior bureaucrats, politicians, town planners, business people and community leaders.
At present, 30 Bhutanese students are studying at UNE.
New England Mutual CEO Kevin Dupé, who initiated the sponsorship of a fact finding mission for two Bhutanese officials, made the suggestion last week.
Armidale mayor Laurie Bishop said he was open to the idea and said he would refer the request to council for further discussion.
Dorji Dhradhul and Sonan Wangmo were in Armidale to discuss how best to establish a co-operative banking system in their country’s rural regions.
Currently five banks, three public and two private, operate in the cities, leaving 70 per cent of the population engaged in agriculture dependent on local money lenders and high interest rates.
During an Asian Federation of Credit Unions conference in Katmandu last year, Mr Dupé met the Bhutanese delegates and offered to initiate a joint sponsorship with other credit unions for the visit to Australia.
“Co-operatives were only introduced in Bhutan three years ago and we now have 30 operating, mainly for marketing of agricultural products,” Mr Dhradul said.
“These co-ops are very small, the largest would have 150 members.
“For us the challenge is to find a cooperative banking model that suits the conditions of our farmers and rural dwellers, which are probably more like Australia’s before World War II.”
Mr Dupé said New England Mutual staff had worked with the Bhutanese visitors on a number of possible models.
“The idea is to expose them to how different co-operative banking systems work in Australia and how they developed, as in our case quite slowly from a very small operation at UNE,” he said.
“We certainly don’t want to see them with a system that results in gross national unhappiness.”
