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WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM
Bhutan’s ambitious plan to boost its economy with a “mindfulness city”
The drive up To phulari viewpoinT snakes for Three miles along dirt tracks flanked by flowering pyoli plants and murals of flaming phalluses, a traditional good-luck symbol here in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan. At the summit, the 1,000-sq.-mi. expanse of what will be Gelephu Mindfulness City (GMC) materializes through fluttering prayer flags. To the east, a strip of palm forest has been cleared to extend the domestic airport’s stunted runway for international flights. To the west, smoke billows from the chimney of an army-run distillery. Over the horizon lies the Indian state of Assam, where much of the labor and materials to construct the $100 billion new special administrative region will come from.
“Activity at the site is just beginning,” says Dr. Lotay Tshering, a urologist who served as Bhutan’s Prime Minister from 2018 to 2023 and is now governor of the GMC. “But ...
