Location: Suite 413, Level 4, Choego Building,  Gelephu, Bhutan, 31101

 

Phone: +97577961648

 

Email: office@basnetgmc.com

 

Alt: basnet@basnetgmc.com

Location: Suite 413, Level 4, Choego Building,  Gelephu, Bhutan, 31101

 

Phone: +97577961648

 

Email: office@basnetgmc.com

 

Alt: basnet@basnetgmc.com

/ ABOUT THE FIRM

The First Law Firm Incorporated in the Gelephu Mindfulness City

Basnet Law Pte. Ltd. is the first law firm incorporated in the Gelephu Mindfulness City, the Special Administrative Region that the Kingdom of Bhutan created by Royal Charter in 2024 with its own legislature, its own courts and its own financial services statute. We were formed for one purpose: to give the founders, funds, digital asset firms, family offices and international groups choosing GMC a law firm that is on the ground, reads the statutes as they are written, and practises to the standard those clients expect from Singapore, Abu Dhabi or London.

That ambition is global by design. GMC's statute book draws on the common law of established common law jurisdictions and the rulebooks of an established international financial centre, its currency of account is the United States dollar, and one regulator licenses banks, insurers, fund managers, exchanges and custodians alike. Our clients arrive from every major financial centre, and we work alongside their existing counsel in India, the United States, Germany, Singapore and China so that a GMC structure fits the group it belongs to. Our office is in the ChoeGo GMC building in Gelephu, and our affiliated firm, Basnet Attorneys & Law, serves mainland Bhutan from Thimphu.

What we do

Company formation and redomiciliation. Incorporation through the Gelephu Corporate Registration Office, constitutions, resident directors and secretaries, and the transfer of existing companies into GMC without liquidation.

GFSO licensing. Financial Services Permissions for banks, fund managers, exchanges, custodians, stablecoin issuers, payment firms and insurers, from scoping to in-principle approval to licence.

Digital assets. Virtual asset service providers, exchange and custody licences, fiat-referenced tokens, tokenisation of real-world assets, and the regulatory perimeter for DeFi and DAO structures.

Tax incentives. Founders company and strategic and development company applications, advance rulings, and planning around the reliefs that close to new approvals on 31 December 2030.

Funds, family offices and wealth. Fund vehicles and managers, family office establishment, trusts and succession planning for families relocating capital to GMC.

Work passes and immigration. Work passes, residency routes and the resident-director requirement for founders and their teams.

Employment, contracts and land. Employment contracts and HR policies under the Employment Act, commercial contracts under GMC law, and long-term site leases through the Economic Development Group.

Compliance and disputes. AML and sanctions programmes, MLRO and approved person support, regulatory investigations, and dispute resolution and arbitration before GMC's courts.

Our Vision

Our vision is for the Gelephu Mindfulness City to be known, within its first decade, as a jurisdiction where the law is clear, the regulator is engaged, and the counsel on the ground is as good as anywhere in the world. We intend to be the firm that helped make that true: the first to incorporate here, the first call for businesses arriving here, and a firm whose work in GMC is recognised in the financial centres our clients come from.

Our Mission

Our mission is to give every client who chooses the Gelephu Mindfulness City a firm that understands both the statute book and the world the client comes from. We handle the whole journey: entity, licence, tax approval, work passes, contracts and compliance, and we stay as ongoing counsel once the business is running. We take the responsibility of being GMC's first incorporated law firm seriously, and we measure ourselves against the standards of the jurisdictions whose law GMC has adopted.

Our Philosophy

Integrity. We say what the law provides and what it does not, we flag what is enacted but not yet in force, and we never promise a regulatory outcome that belongs to the regulator to decide.

Excellence. GMC's law is drawn from established common law jurisdictions and international financial centres. We hold ourselves to the standard of practice in those centres and keep pace with every new Act, rulebook and regulation as the city's legal framework grows.

Client first. We listen to the commercial objective before we open a statute. Advice is direct, priced in advance and delivered in plain language, and we would rather tell a client that GMC is not the right fit than take on work that does not serve them.

Built for a new jurisdiction. We are early, and so are our clients. We treat that as a responsibility: to document carefully, to engage constructively with the GMC Authority, the Registrar and the Gelephu Financial Services Office, and to help build the practice standards that a new financial centre needs.