Kinga Tshering

Kinga Tshering (born 20 December 1966) is a Bhutanese banker and politician who served as the Member of the National Assembly for the North Thimphu constituency from August 2013 to August 2016 under Druk Phuensum Tshogpa (DPT). Before entering politics he was chief executive of Bank of Bhutan and of DHI Infra, the infrastructure arm of Druk Holding and Investments. In 2022 he founded Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa (DTT), a new political party headquartered in Trashigang, and led it into the 2023–24 National Assembly election, where it finished fifth of five parties with 9.84 per cent of the primary-round vote and was eliminated.^[1][2]

He is widely regarded as one of the few senior Bhutanese politicians with both corporate and state-enterprise experience, and his career has moved between the financial sector, state-owned enterprises, legislative politics and party building.

Early life and education

Kinga Tshering was born on 20 December 1966 in Thimphu. He studied engineering at the University of Kansas on a Fulbright Fellowship and later took an MBA at Pepperdine University in California, where he was a Dispute Resolution Fellow at the Straus Institute. In 2017 he completed a mid-career Master in Public Administration at the Harvard Kennedy School on a Ford Foundation Mason Fellowship, and he was subsequently a fellow at the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at Harvard in 2018.^[1]

Corporate and state-enterprise career

Kinga Tshering spent most of his pre-political career inside Bhutan's state-owned commercial apparatus. He was involved in the formation of the Bhutan Power Corporation (BPC) and the Bhutan Electricity Authority (BEA) during the unbundling of the old Department of Power in the early 2000s, and later in the establishment of Druk Holding and Investments (DHI), the sovereign holding company that owns most of Bhutan's large commercial assets.^[1]

From December 2007 to April 2010 he served as chief executive of Bank of Bhutan, the country's oldest commercial bank. From April 2010 to February 2013 he headed DHI Infra, the subsidiary charged with delivering DHI's large infrastructure projects. The combination of financial sector and state-enterprise experience is what DPT later cited in recruiting him as a candidate for the 2013 election.^[3]

Member of Parliament, 2013–2016

In the 2013 National Assembly election Kinga Tshering contested the North Thimphu constituency for Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, replacing the former foreign minister Ugyen Tshering as the party's candidate. Although DPT lost nationally to the People's Democratic Party, he won the seat and took office in August 2013. He was one of the younger technocrats in the opposition bench and was publicly identified by DPT leaders as a potential future minister.^[4]

In August 2016, roughly halfway through his term, Kinga Tshering submitted his resignation to the Speaker. He had applied for study leave to take up a place at the Harvard Kennedy School and, after the leave was refused, chose to resign rather than decline the course. Party leaders publicly urged him to reconsider, but he confirmed his decision in person and the resignation was formally accepted. The vacancy triggered a bye-election in North Thimphu, which was won by the People's Democratic Party.^[3][5]

The resignation was unusual enough that The Bhutanese described it as a "political quake" for the opposition, and voters in North Thimphu expressed open frustration at being left without representation midway through the parliament. Coverage at the time also reported that Kinga Tshering was approached by Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) to join its ranks, though he did not do so publicly.^[6]

Founding of Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa

After several years out of active politics, Kinga Tshering returned in 2022 as the founder of a new party, Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa (འབྲུག་མཐུན་འབྲེལ་ཚོགས་པ་, "Bhutan Unity Party"). He was unanimously elected president at the party's inaugural convention on 2 May 2022 as the sole candidate. The Election Commission of Bhutan granted the party formal registration on 22 August 2022, making it the fifth political party then registered in the country.^[7]

Unlike Bhutan's other parties, DTT placed its headquarters in Trashigang rather than Thimphu, an explicit attempt to build a base in the east where DPT had historically dominated. Chenga Tshering, a former DPT candidate from Thrimshing in 2018, was chosen as vice president, and many of the party's early district coordinators were former DPT activists who had left the party after its 2018 defeat.^[2]

"Sunomics" and the DTT platform

Under Kinga Tshering the party built its 2023 manifesto around a concept it called "Sunomics" — a portmanteau of the party's sun symbol and "economics" — which it described as "Buddhist capitalism in the spirit of Gross National Happiness". In practice the platform leaned towards deregulation: it proposed expanding private participation in healthcare, creating an offshore banking jurisdiction, liberalising mining, and loosening restrictions on private investment. Kinga Tshering argued that Bhutan's traditional dependence on hydropower revenue and donor aid was no longer sustainable and that the country needed to shift towards private-sector-led growth to address youth unemployment and emigration.^[8]

The platform drew a mixed response. Supporters welcomed a clear pro-business message at a time when the Australia-driven outflow of skilled Bhutanese had become a dominant political issue. Critics, including commentators in Kuensel, questioned whether the deregulatory programme was compatible with the GNH framework the party simultaneously invoked, and whether a first-time party with no parliamentary record could credibly deliver the institutional changes it proposed.^[9]

2023–24 National Assembly election

DTT contested the primary round of the fourth National Assembly election on 30 November 2023 as one of five registered parties. Under Kinga Tshering's leadership it fielded candidates in most constituencies and concentrated campaign resources in the eastern dzongkhags. Results published by the Election Commission of Bhutan placed the party fifth of five with 30,814 votes, or 9.84 per cent of the 313,162 valid votes cast. The party failed to qualify for the general round, which was contested between the People's Democratic Party and the Bhutan Tendrel Party.^[10][11]

The result was a setback for the party's stated eastern strategy. Although DTT outperformed some projections in individual Trashigang and Mongar constituencies, it was unable to break DPT's incumbent hold in enough eastern seats to reach the general round, and its overall share was the smallest of the five parties.

After the 2023 election

Following the primary-round defeat, Kinga Tshering remained president of Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa, which stayed on the Election Commission's register of political parties. Public appearances since the election have been limited, and he has not held any elected or ministerial office. He has continued to associate with the Institute of Happiness, a Thimphu-based research and convening organisation that hosts Harvard Kennedy School alumni programmes on Gross National Happiness.^[12]

As of 2026 DTT had not announced a candidate strategy for the 2028 election cycle, and Kinga Tshering's own political future remained an open question. Bhutanese analysts noted that the party's survival would depend on whether it could retain its eastern district coordinators and broaden its base beyond the Trashigang headquarters.

Personal life

According to his publicly available biographical material, Kinga Tshering is married to Tshering Wangmo and has three children: Kunzang PC Tshering, Yeshi Seldon Tshering and Gelek Yangzom Tshering.^[1]

See also

• Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa
• Druk Phuensum Tshogpa
• People's Democratic Party
• Bhutan Tendrel Party
• Election Commission of Bhutan
• National Assembly of Bhutan
• Trashigang Dzongkhag

References

1. Kinga Tshering — Wikipedia
2. Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa's plan to replace DPT in the east — The Bhutanese
3. Political quake as DPT's star MP puts up resignation — The Bhutanese
4. DPT & PDP candidates for North Thimphu woo voters — BBS
5. PDP wins North Thimphu — Kuensel
6. Former MP Kinga Tshering likely to join DNT — Business Bhutan
7. Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa becomes the fifth political party — BBS
8. Druk Thuendrel Tshogpa — Wikipedia
9. Will dzongkhags in the south decide the 2023–24 election? — Kuensel
10. Declaration of Results of the 4th National Assembly Elections 2023–2024 — Election Commission of Bhutan
11. Bhutan National Assembly election, 9 January 2024 — IPU Parline
12. Kinga Tshering — The Institute of Happiness