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Gross National Happiness and Buddhist Economics

As part of the Budapest De-growth Week, the Hungary–Bhutan Friendship Society and the Business Ethics Center organized a workshop on “Gross National Happiness and Buddhist Economics in Bhutan and Elsewhere” on September 1, 2016 in Budapest.

Gross National Happiness (GNH), developed in Bhutan, was presented as a major socio-economic tool for fostering non-Western types of economic development. It is related to Buddhism, but is more universally applicable. Principles of Buddhist economics, including “small is beautiful”, and “less is more”, were discussed. Buddhist entrepreneurial activities were presented using cases from Bhutan and Hungary.

Presentations included the following:

Zoltan Valcsicsak (Hungary–Bhutan Friendship Society, Budapest): “Gross National Happiness–The Bhutan Experience”,

Laszlo Zsolnai (Corvinus University of Budapest): “Buddhist Economics”,

Gabor Kovacs, (Corvinus University of Budapest): “Buddhist Entrepreneurship in Hungary”.