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Bhutan Industry, Mining, Energy, and Commerce
Industry
Only 1 percent or less of the work force was involved
in
industry and construction in the late 1980s, and
industrial
production and construction represented only 14.2 percent
of GDP
projected for 1991. Handicrafts, cement, food processing,
wood
milling, and distilling were the major industries. In the
late
1980s, there about 400 small-scale cottage and industrial
units.
There also were two cement plants under the Penden Cement
Authority; a joint venture (the government-sponsored Tashi
Commercial Corporation in conjunction with the World Bank,
Norway,
and Kuwait), a Bhutan Carbide and Chemicals calcium
carbide plant
(near Phuntsholing), and factories for processing fruit,
for
manufacturing paper pulp, wood veneers, and particle board
(Gedu
Wood Manufacturing Corporation and Bhutan Board Products),
and for
producing resin and turpentine. Additionally, there were
three
distilleries and a salt iodization plant. Other small
industrial
enterprises manufactured such consumer goods as soap,
confectionaries, and furniture. Most of the larger
industries,
established since Bhutan's economic modernization began in
the
1960s, were themselves modern and used a considerable
amount of
labor-saving technology. The largest industries employed
no more
than sixty or seventy workers. Many of the newly
developing
industries began making public stock offerings in the late
1980s.
Data as of September 1991
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