Lekey Zangmo 

A three-day entrepreneurship festival, Druk Tshongrig Gatoen (DTG) to promote and celebrate social entrepreneurship, and intelligent business began in the capital yesterday.

The festival, that also celebrates young Bhutanese entrepreneurs, started in 2018.

The festival has brought together civil society organizations, development partners, private companies, and Bhutanese entrepreneurs to raise awareness of the importance of entrepreneurship.




Loden Foundation executive director, Tshewang Tashi said that many have become interested in participating in the annual festival over the years. “Past years have been a challenge for us to hold this event. We are glad that we could do it properly this year. We have many participants this time.”

Despite the disruptions due to the pandemic, they held the event in November 2021 due to requests from entrepreneurs.

A Druk Agro Processing and Package Unit representative said, “The festival is a wonderful platform for us to promote our products. It was hard due to the ban on import for the packaging for our products a past year. Things have improved now.”




Some who were new to the festival said that they were hoping for a good turn out of customers during the three days. “We hope to join next year as well,” a vendor said.

Entrepreneurs said that the biggest challenge was the price competition. “It is hard for our local products to compete with imported products. This event gives us place for marketing our products.”

There are stalls for traditional textiles, zorig chusum crafts, food stalls, pastries and furniture.

The local made noodles, foods, live shows from local bands and inflatable slides for children are some attractions at the festival.