RENUKA RAI | Thimphu
The Bhutan Qualifications and Professional Certification Authority (BQPCA) has launched an integrated digital regulatory system aimed at making qualification recognition and professional certification services more accessible, transparent and efficient.
The system, launched on September 2, brings key services of the Medical and Health Professionals Council (MHPC), Higher Education Quality Council (HEQC) and Engineering Professionals Council (EPC) onto a common digital platform.
The platform allows applicants, professionals and institutions to access services remotely, submit applications and track their progress, reducing the need for repeated visits to BQPCA offices.
For BQPCA, the initiative is more than simply putting existing services online. It is intended to change how regulatory services are delivered by reducing unnecessary procedures, improving information sharing and creating clearer digital records of decisions.
BQPCA Director Dr Ugyen Tshewang said the authority needed to move away from increasingly difficult manual processes as its responsibilities expanded.
“As our responsibilities continue to expand, we realised that the manual way of delivering services was no longer sufficient. The new system allows us to move towards services that are faster, simpler, more transparent and centered on the needs of applicants and professionals,” he said.
Previously, some applicants were required to visit BQPCA offices to submit applications and, in certain cases, return to collect certificates and formal outcomes. Applications could also pass manually between officers and departments, contributing to delays and making it difficult for applicants to know the status of their submissions.
The new system introduces structured digital workflows, role-based approvals and traceable records. Applications can move through defined stages, while regulatory decisions and actions are recorded digitally.
This is expected to give applicants greater visibility while providing BQPCA with better records for monitoring, reporting and regulatory oversight.
A major feature of the system is its ability to connect with other government platforms.
The HEQC system is connected with the Integrated Business System of the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Employment and the Department of Civil Registration and Census. The EPC system is connected with the Bhutan Construction and Transport Authority, while the MHPC system is linked with the Bhutan Food and Drug Authority.
The connections are intended to allow relevant information to be verified through existing government records, where appropriate, instead of requiring citizens and institutions to repeatedly provide the same information.
Dr Ugyen Tshewang said this would also reduce manual data entry and improve accuracy.
Under the previous process, officials had to enter information such as a person’s CID number, village and parents’ names separately. With the connection to the civil registration system, relevant information can be retrieved using the CID number.
The Secretary of the Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Tshewang C. Dorji, said this approach was important to ensure that digital transformation did not simply reproduce old processes on a new platform.
“Digital transformation is not about taking a manual process and simply putting it online,” he said.
He said agencies should examine their processes and identify steps that could be removed, particularly where information was already available within government systems.
He said interoperability should become an increasingly important part of public service delivery.
“Citizens do not experience government as individual ministries, departments and agencies. They experience government as one government,” he said.
The new BQPCA platform reflects this approach by allowing relevant systems to communicate with each other while supporting regulatory functions within one digital environment.
For MHPC and EPC, the platform covers professional registration, re-registration, renewal and additional qualifications. It also supports institute registration and the issuance of certificates of good standing.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) services are also included. CPD providers can manage their services through the platform, while professionals can submit self-CPD activities and maintain their professional development records.
For HEQC, the platform supports recognition of qualification certificates, second-copy issuance, higher education institution accreditation, accreditation renewal, regulatory reporting and accreditation appeal processing.
Institutions can also submit accreditation and registration applications digitally and manage their regulatory requirements through the system.
The digital records generated through these processes are expected to strengthen BQPCA’s ability to monitor professional and institutional compliance. They can also support management reporting, planning, auditing and evidence-based regulatory decision-making.
The system was developed by DrukSmart Private Limited, with GovTech Agency serving as the procuring agency and technical lead. BQPCA’s councils and teams contributed their regulatory expertise and feedback during the development process.
The ministry secretary said the launch should be viewed as the beginning of a longer digital transformation journey rather than the completion of it.
He encouraged BQPCA and its partners to continue improving interoperability and explore additional digital services, including digital credentials, professional registries, integrated CPD management, competency-based assessments and data-driven regulatory planning.
The authority is already preparing to expand the platform.
An Education Consultancy and Placement Firms (ECPF) module under HEQC is planned for a separate rollout by the end of September. It will cover registration and renewal, profile and licence-related services, compliance management, education fair and visitor-clearance services, institutional linkages and student-placement reporting.
A Teaching Professionals Council module is also planned as part of the future expansion of the common platform.
BQPCA also plans to progressively introduce smarter functions. Potential future features include automated renewal and compliance alerts, application-completeness checks, performance dashboards, improved mobile accessibility, expanded government-system integration and applicant feedback and service-satisfaction analytics.
These features are planned enhancements and are not part of the current launch.
As government systems become more interconnected, however, concerns around data protection will also become increasingly important.
MoESD Secretary stressed the need to pay attention to data governance, privacy, cybersecurity and information security as digital integration expands.
He said the success of the platform should ultimately be measured not by how sophisticated the technology is, but by the improvements it brings to users.
The key questions, he said, should be whether services have become simpler, processing faster, transparency stronger and regulatory decisions more reliable.
The launch therefore marks a shift for BQPCA from fragmented and largely manual processes towards a more connected regulatory ecosystem.
As additional councils and services are brought into the platform, BQPCA expects the system to provide a common digital foundation for qualification recognition, professional certification, accreditation and regulatory oversight.
For citizens, professionals and institutions, the immediate promise is fewer administrative hurdles. For BQPCA, the system provides a more structured and accountable way of managing the information and decisions that underpin professional and qualification standards in Bhutan.
