Damchae Dem

Damchae Dem is one of Bhutan's most prominent entrepreneurs and civil society leaders. Born into poverty, she founded Pelden Enterprise Limited — the company that established Bhutan's first steel industry — and later created the Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAOWE), an organisation that has become a central institution for women's economic participation in the country. Her career spans industrial manufacturing, international trade, and grassroots empowerment, and in 2016 BAOWE's work was formally recognised by the King of Bhutan with the award of the National Order of Merit.

Early Life

Damchae Dem was born into poverty in Bhutan. Her first entrepreneurial venture was cooking and selling potato chips locally — a modest beginning that she has cited as formative in developing her commercial instinct and her willingness to start from wherever opportunity presented itself. She attended St. Helens Convent in Kurseong, India, for her high school education, receiving a broader exposure to the wider region at a time when few Bhutanese women had access to education beyond the country's borders.

Pelden Enterprise and Bhutan's Steel Industry

Dem founded Pelden Enterprise Limited in the 1990s. In 2003, she established Bhutan's first steel melting shop — a milestone in the country's industrial development that introduced a manufacturing capability Bhutan had previously entirely lacked. By 2006, Pelden had grown to become the first company in Bhutan to manufacture steel at scale. It has since expanded to become the largest steel manufacturer in the kingdom.

Pelden Enterprise exports ferrosilicon to Malaysia, Dubai, Singapore, Bangladesh, India, and European markets — an export portfolio that makes it one of Bhutan's few industrially significant exporters operating at an international level. The company's development from a single melting shop to a multi-market exporter reflects both Dem's commercial ambition and the growth of Bhutan's productive economy.

Bhutan Association of Women Entrepreneurs (BAOWE)

In 2010, Dem founded BAOWE with the explicit aim of empowering disadvantaged women and unengaged youth through entrepreneurship programmes addressing both rural and urban poverty. BAOWE provides business training, micro-enterprise support, and advocacy for women's economic rights, filling a gap in Bhutan's civil society for an organisation specifically focused on female entrepreneurship rather than welfare.

The organisation operates across Bhutan and has engaged with international bodies including the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation. In 2016 BAOWE received the National Order of Merit from the King of Bhutan — recognition at the highest official level of the organisation's contribution to the country.

Dem has held leadership roles in several international bodies: Vice President of the SAARC Chamber of Women Entrepreneurs Council (SCWEC), Vice President of the South Asian Women Development Forum (SAWDF), member of the Advisory Board of Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), core committee member of Bhutan's Civil Society Organisation network, and member of LDC-Watch, which advocates for the interests of least-developed countries in global trade and development forums.

Legacy

Damchae Dem's career embodies a trajectory that is unusual even by international standards: from local food production to heavy industry to civil society leadership, all within a single generation and in a country of under 800,000 people. Her dual role — as an industrial pioneer and as a systematic advocate for the economic inclusion of women — places her at the intersection of Bhutan's economic development and its social transformation. Through BAOWE, she has worked to ensure that the entrepreneurial path she forged is more accessible to the next generation of Bhutanese women, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

References

1. "Damchae Dem." Wikipedia.
2. "Women rocking international trade — Damchae Dem." GTP Alliance.
3. "BAOWE — A Woman Entrepreneur Network in Bhutan." WIPO IP Advantage.
4. "Pelden Group." Pelden Enterprise Ltd.