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Secretariat

The Secretariat of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is headed by the Hon’ble Secretary and consists of three Divisions, Internal Audit and Six Regional Offices.

1. Policy & Planning Division
2. Administration and Finance Division
3. The Intellectual Property Division
4. Internal Audit
5. Regional Offices

The Secretariat is responsible for planning, coordinating and monitoring of the plans, programmes and activities in the Ministry besides being a provider of direction and support services to the Departments under the Ministry.

Policy and Planning Division

The PPD in the Ministry of Economic Affairs functions directly under the Secretariat and is headed by a Chief planning Officer. There are four main sections under the Division namely, Policy, Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Project Coordination; an IT Unit has also been established recently. The Division undertakes the following functions; Formulation of Sectoral Policies, Review and Amendment of Sectoral Policy, Coordinating the five-year plans; Monitoring and Evaluating of the Five Year Plans; Collecting, Compiling, Analyzing and Dissemination of statistical data and information pertaining to the Ministry; Planning and Coordinating the HRD activities in the Ministry; Implementing the cross Sectoral projects such as the EUSPS and the PSDP; and acting as secretariat for the Ministry besides other ad-hoc jobs.

Policy Section : The Policy Section is responsible for formulation of new Sectoral policies, review existing ones and initiate amendments, to initiate formulation of legal instruments, to act as a focal point for national and international policies and legal instruments and to act as a Secretariat for the Ministry.

Planning Section : The Planning Section is responsible for coordinating and planning of the Five Year Plans; planning and coordinating the HRD of the Ministry; collection, analysis, retrieval and dissemination of information and data related to the Ministry; focal point for Central Statistical Organization; publication of the MTI Newsletter on a biannual basis besides other ad-hoc jobs.

Monitoring & Evaluation Section :
The Monitoring and Evaluation Section is responsible for monitoring of the progress in the implementation of policies, programmes, projects and activities in the trade, industry, power, tourism and geology and mines sectors. This is carried out on a quarterly basis. Monitoring and Evaluation Section also prepares the quarterly progress reports on the physical and financial achievements of the Ministry's plans and programmes.

Project Co-ordination Section : The Project Co-ordination Section (PCS) is responsible for the overall co-ordination of all external assistance to the Ministry that are cross Sectoral and to liaison with external agencies on aid co-ordination to the Ministry. The PCS was formed in the year 2000 with the restructuring of PPD. At present the PCS is coordinating the Danish funded Environment Sector Programme Support Project to the Ministry. This project was initiated in July 1998 with the Ministry dealing with two components out of the nine in the country. The two components are Component 5: for capacity building in the Department of Industry and Department of Geology and Mines and Component 6: for the introduction of Cleaner Technology and Environmental Management in industries. The highlights of the project have been integrating environmental management systems into the Ministry, capacity building through short term and long term training, establishment of industrial and mining databases, installation of LAN, development of Environmental Monitoring Systems, revision of existing mining regulations, development of codes of best practices and the selection of CTEM demonstration companies. Overall this project is preparing the Ministry to take environmental considerations in the economic development process. During the 3rd Annual Sector Review Agreement in May 2001, DANIDA formally approved the 10th Component concerning with Occupational Safety and Health in the ESPS Project.

IT Section :The Ministry has recently created an IT Unit under Policy and Planning Division, in order to strengthen the Information Technology and also for the standardization of software and hardware. At present all departments/divisions have Internet access through 128 kbps leased line and Thimphu WAN connections, but the ministry is in the process of upgrading the leased line connection shortly. Half the Ministry has Fiber Optic Backbone Network with Fast Ethernet (100 Base T and 100 Base FX in Star Bus Topology Network Architecture), and it runs on Microsoft Windows Back Office Server 4.5. (Windows NT 4.0, Exchange 5.5, SQL Server, Proxy Server and IIS Server). To maintain the pace of computerization and to turn Information Technology into a practical tool for the Ministry's operations, the IT Unit is mainly concentrating on two general issues: Up-grading and strengthening of IT unit and Creation of IT Master Plan. The Programme aims to link and centralize all the databases in the Ministry and create an IT master plan for the Ministry. These will be achieved through institutional strengthening of the IT unit and human capacity building of the IT staff of the Ministry.

Administration and Finance Division

The Administration and Finance Division's responsibilities are general administrative support, personnel and financial management of the Ministry, which has five Departments and fourteen divisions.

Human Resource Division
The Human Resource Division provides general administrative support such as Recruitment, Training, Leave, Promotion, Welfare, etc.. It works in close coordination with the Departments/Divisions within the Ministry.

Finance Section
The Finance Section provides financial support such as Budgeting, Accounting, Pay and Allowances and Revenue Collection for the five Departments under the Ministry.

The Procurement Section
The Procurement Section provides support services to the Ministry and its Departments. It procures the necessary requirements of all the Departments and supplies them to the respective Departments. Other responsibilities of the Section are Hospitality, Pool Vehicles and Tendering.

Internal Audit Unit

As per the decision of the Royal Government of Bhutan the Internal Audit Unit was established in the Ministry under the direct supervision of the Minister or the Head of the Ministry effective from July 2000.

The objectives of the Internal Audit Unit is to assist the Ministry in the effective discharge of its responsibilities as detailed below :

· the activities of the Ministry are carried out in an orderly and efficient manner
· plans, policies and procedures of the Ministry are implemented
· economy, efficiency and effectiveness of operations are achieved
· applicable laws, rules and regulations are compiled with
· internal controls and other control systems are in place and are effective

Internal Audit thus measures, evaluates and reports upon the effectiveness of internal controls and other control system. The Internal Audit Unit in order to review and analyze the situation and to suggest recommendation thereof had conducted pre audit (July 2000 to till date) of 27 offices including the streamlining of the central procurement system in the Ministry and a detail study on the electricity meter reading procedures in Eastern Bhutan.

Intellectual Property Division

The Intellectual Property Division (IPD) of the Ministry of Economic Affairs is the responsible agency for administration of the industrial property system. The IPD is also assigned the task of promoting the establishment of a comprehensive intellectual property protection system in the country which will include in addition to protection of trademarks, the institution of protection regimes for patents, designs, copyright and other intellectual property rights.

The adoption of two acts, viz., the Industrial Property Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2001, and the Copyright Act of the Kingdom of Bhutan, 2001, by National Assembly at its 79th Session, has initiated steps towards introducing an effective system for the protection of intellectual property rights in the Kingdom. Under the first act, the registries for trademarks, patents and designs will be formally established and facilities for registration of rights commenced in due course following training of sufficient numbers of manpower to handle skilled tasks. Under the Copyright Act, the IPD will be involved in setting up collective copyright management and administration societies and in the dissemination of information on copyright matters as well as promoting enforcement of rights.