Page 58 - ELITE PLUS MAGAZINE VOL6

At the time, Bhutan had just started an FDI policy. Regulations were not yet stable and the authorities didn’t know what to do with foreign investors. It just took a bit more time. The good thing is that Bhutan uses English as an official language which really made everything easy for uspeople and treat them like my friends and family. When I see the guests happy, I’m happy. Profit comes second.”Mr Woraphot and his wife came to Paro on vacation nine years ago and immediately fell in love with the nature, rich culture and tranquillity. And with their first hotel, Haven Resort Hua Hin, already established, the couple had more time, budget and confidence to venture further afield for their second.Setting up a business in Bhutan was not as difficult as he had feared. “All you need is a bit of patience,” he said. “At the time, Bhutan had just started an FDI policy. Regulations were not yet stable and the authorities didn’t know what to do with foreign investors. It just took a bit more time. The good thing is that Bhutan uses English as an official language which really made everything easy for us.”Being a small boutique hotel, Woraphot was required to have a local partner to start up the business. Fortunately he had befriended a Bhutanese citizen who later became his business partner. It took them two years to get the permit for construction. Then the next challenge began.“Construction facilities and know- how in Bhutan are very primitive,” Mr Woraphot said. “Think Thailand decades back when everything was done by hand with simple tools and no machinery at all – that was Bhutan at least five or six years ago when I started construction of the hotel. I had to bring almost all the material and heavy machinery as well as construction workers from Thailand, otherwise the hotel would have taken six years to complete instead of one and a half. The good thing is that local labour is cheap, though not skilled,56 Elite+