Financial services … for who?

A joint sitting of the Parliament passed the Financial Services Bill. 66 members voted for the Bill. Only one member voted against it. That solitary member was me. I voted against the Bill because it is discriminatory – it favors foreign investors over our own people. Section 50 of the Bill specifies that a Bhutanese individual cannot own more than 20% of a financial institution’s shares; and that a Bhutanese company cannot own more than 30% of a financial institution’s shares. But the Bill does not specify the amount of shares a foreign company can own in a financial…