不丹依据佛教制定发展策略引起西方经济学家关注

不丹依据佛教制定发展策略引起西方经济学家关注

　　平易 编译

　　据Washington times报道，在全球金融危机愈演愈烈的时刻，一些经济学家开始研究不丹独特的经济政策。这个喜玛拉雅山麓的王国依据佛教宗旨制定出以国民幸福总值来衡量的经济政策。

　　在最近召开的一次会议上，不丹首相吉格梅·廷里对外国经济学家、教育家和公共政策顾问说，“幸福是一个严肃的问题。在资源有限的世界里追求无限增长的生产力是无法持续的，对后代也是不公平的。”

　　巴黎经合组织（OECD)的一名规划者说他能够接受这种思想。“过去的几十年，我们一直追求国内生产总值，而现在，社会开始告诉我们，应当把目光放到GDP之外，开始用幸福来衡量。”

　　国民幸福总值（GNH)，在不丹已有几百年的发展历史，然而直到1972，当时的国王吉格梅·辛格·旺楚克才使它正式成为一种经济政策。旺楚克国王把以生产力发展为中心的政策转向以人类幸福来衡量的政策，并建立四大原则：可持续的经济发展、保护和促进文化价值的发展，环保和善政。廷里首相说，从那时起，不丹政府就在上述四大原则指导下制定了一系列五年计划。

　　然而观察者声称，“幸福”一词使西方经济学家和发展专家们误解，在西方，人们通常用“人类发展”或“多元化发展”来表达类似含义。不丹研究中心主任DashoKarmaUra说，“如何定义‘幸福’并不重要，重要的是改善条件，以使人们获得他们能够理解的‘幸福’”。

　　Washington times原文：

　　“Happy”economic policy gains traction

　　Bhutan's measure of well-being attracts other nations

　　Don Duncan THE WASHINGTON TIMES

　　Friday, December 12, 2008

　　THIMPHU, Bhutan   In the thick of a global financial crisis, some economists have come to this Himalayan kingdom to study its unique economic policy based on Buddhist principles, Gross National Happiness.

　　“Happiness is very serious business. The dogma of limitless productivity and growth in a finite world is unsustainable and unfair for future generations,” Bhutanese Prime Minister Jigme Thinley told foreign economists, educators and public policy consultants at a recent conference here.

　　Jon Hall, a project leader at the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said he was receptive to the concept.

　　“We've been chasing gross domestic product for decades and now, societies are starting to say we need to look beyond GDP and start measuring well-being,”Mr. Hall said.

　　Gross National Happiness, or GNH, was developed in isolation in Bhutan over centuries but was formalized an economic alternative in 1972 by then-King Jigme Singye Wangchuck in an attempt to address stagnation for one of the world's smallest economies, which is based mainly on agriculture and forestry.

　　At the time, the king shifted the focus of development from productivity to human well-being in four areas: sustainable economic development, preservation and promotion of cultural values, conservation of the environment and good governance.

　　Since then, government policy in Bhutan was guided by these principles in a succession of five-year plans, Mr. Thinley said.

　　But the term “happiness”often causes Western economists and development experts to not take Bhutan's economic approach seriously, observers say. And if they do, they tend to mask it with terms such as “human development”or“pluralistic growth.”

　　“People are shy to use the word 'happiness,' ”said Dasho Karma Ura, president of the Center for Bhutan Studies in the capital Thimphu, which launched the informational Web site www.grossnationalhappiness.com last month.

　　“Defining happiness is not what is important. What is important is providing the conditions through which people can achieve happiness as they understand it,”he said.