Fact­box: Gele­phu Mind­ful­ness City (GMC):

With Gelephu Mindfulness City, Bhutan wants to chart its own path of development: a new city in the south that combines Bhutanese values with innovation and gives young people a future at home. The key facts at a glance.

What it is about: Gele­phu Mind­ful­ness City is the King’s vision for a new city and eco­nom­ic region in south­ern Bhutan. It aims to show a dif­fer­ent path of devel­op­ment, one in which tra­di­tion­al Bhutanese val­ues such as spir­i­tu­al­i­ty and har­mo­ny with nature are com­bined with inno­va­tion, tech­nol­o­gy and eco­nom­ic vibran­cy. The project is meant to diver­si­fy the econ­o­my beyond hydropow­er and tourism and to give young peo­ple prospects in their own coun­try.

Key facts

  • Announced: 17 Decem­ber 2023 by King Jigme Khe­sar Nam­gyel Wangchuck in his Nation­al Day address
  • Loca­tion and size: On the south­ern plains bor­der­ing the Indi­an state of Assam, cov­er­ing more than 4,046 km² – around 10% of Bhutan’s land area (for com­par­i­son: over five times the size of Sin­ga­pore)
  • Sta­tus: A high­ly autonomous Spe­cial Admin­is­tra­tive Region estab­lished by Roy­al Char­ter in Feb­ru­ary 2024, with its own exec­u­tive, leg­is­la­ture and inde­pen­dent judi­cia­ry, sep­a­rate from the Roy­al Gov­ern­ment of Bhutan
  • Its own legal sys­tem: 18 Sin­ga­pore­an laws and 10 finan­cial reg­u­la­tions of the Abu Dhabi Glob­al Mar­ket have been adopt­ed, cov­er­ing areas such as com­pa­ny incor­po­ra­tion, employ­ment, tax­a­tion and finan­cial ser­vices
  • Lead­er­ship: A board chaired by the King, a Gov­er­nor respon­si­ble for imple­men­ta­tion with­in the coun­try, and a CEO from inter­na­tion­al busi­ness. The Gov­er­nor since Octo­ber 2024 is Dr Lotay Tsher­ing, a for­mer Prime Min­is­ter; the CEO is Sin­ga­pore­an Liew Mun Leong, for­mer chair­man of Chan­gi Air­port
  • Mas­ter­plan: Designed by BIG (Bjarke Ingels Group), Arup and Cistri, shaped by Bhutanese cul­ture, the prin­ci­ples of Gross Nation­al Hap­pi­ness and the country’s spir­i­tu­al her­itage
  • Flag­ship project – the air­port: Con­struc­tion of the inter­na­tion­al air­port began in 2025 with more than a thou­sand vol­un­teers tak­ing part in zhabtog, Bhutan’s tra­di­tion of com­mu­ni­ty ser­vice; com­ple­tion is planned for the end of 2029
  • Con­nec­tiv­i­ty: A 69 km rail link from Assam to Gele­phu is also planned
  • Lat­est: On 22 Sep­tem­ber 2026, Prime Min­is­ter Tsher­ing Tob­gay court­ed investors at the UN Gen­er­al Assem­bly in New York – explic­it­ly pre­sent­ing him­self as a ‘sales­man’.
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Ruth & Urs Bolter

Our ideas and texts are born in lively dialogues - while hiking, over a cup of coffee, during a break - or with a simple question. Inspiration can be found everywhere - it is a matter of putting it into words and sharing it.