Bhutan Country Strategy Paper 2007-2013 - the European External ...

government at all levels, predictability and rule of law. The EC will focus on best practices in good
governance, decentralised decision-making and best practices in development, including
innovative methods to improve delivery of services to address poverty, gender issues, institutional
reforms and public sector management. This assistance could come in the form of budgetary
support.
Focal Sector 3:
Trade Facilitation
The EC allocation would be approximately 20% of the total CSP allocation.
This support would aim to strengthen the export capacity of Bhutan, and in particular the Trade
Development Office together with the Bhutan Chamber of Commerce and Industry and other
support institutions or private sector associations to service Bhutan’s private sector exporters, in
order to improve both the infrastructure and the quality of the produce targeting export markets.
It will help producers meet export requirements and could provide assistance to sector
associations and export promotion bodies.
The assistance will also build on the support provided through the existing EC-funded Trade
Development Project. This will support Bhutan in the development of its international trade
policy framework in line with the WTO accession process and overall developmental objectives.
More specifically, the intervention is expected to ensure that the Bhutanese national legislation can
be brought into WTO compliance.
4.2 Coherence with regional and thematic programmes
In the context of cooperation with Bhutan, alongside activities foreseen under this CSP, the
Commission intends to pursue thematic interventions in the following areas: democracy and
human rights, migration and asylum, human and social development, environment and sustainable
management of natural resources including energy, and non-state actors. These thematic activities
are complementary to the strategic objectives pursued by the Commission under the CSP and
form part of the policy dialogue with Bhutan. The financing of these thematic activities will be
additional to financial resources provided under the MIPs.
17