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Madhav P Ghimire
Mr. Ghimire has been serving as the Chief Secretary of the Government of Nepal since July 2009. The Chief Secretary as the Chief Administrative Officer of the Government of Nepal is primarily responsible for overall supervision of all the Secretaries and has to coordinate, facilitate and provide general guidance to all Ministries in their governance. The Chief Secretary is also responsible as the Cabinet Secretary under the direct supervision of the Prime Minister of Nepal.
Mr. Ghimire was born in a rural village of Palpa, Western Nepal in February 1961. He completed his school and Bachelor's level education from Palpa. He did Master's Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from Tribhuvan University Nepal in 1985 and acquired Master of Science in Rural and Regional Planning from Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Bangkok in 1991.
Mr. Ghimire has an experience of more than 27 years as a career Civil Servant of the Government of Nepal. He joined Civil Service in January 1985 as a Planning Officer. During his two years stint in this capacity in the Regional Planning Office of the National Planning Commission, he was deeply involved in assisting nine remote districts of Far Western Development Region of Nepal in preparing District Development Plans. Afterwards, he carried out responsibilities in the macro-economic planning process in the National Planning Commission till May 1990.
Subsequently being promoted to the higher level position of Under Secretary in 1992, he was primarily responsible for overall human resource management at the Ministry of Water Resources. In January 1998, he was entrusted with yet another higher responsibility of Deputy Director General of the Department of Value Added Tax (VAT) under the Ministry of Finance. While being there, he was involved in the challenging task of introducing and institutionalizing VAT system, a major tax reform initiative of the Government.
Mr. Ghimire served as the Chief of Foreign Aid Coordination Division of the Ministry of Finance from June 1998 to May 2003 and engaged in landmark reforms in the areas of foreign aid coordination and mobilization in Nepal. He contributed to formulation and enforcement of the Foreign Aid Policy 2002, a major instrument to improve aid management and harmonization, for the first time in Nepal. He worked as a team member in initiating second generation economic and institutional reforms including Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper and Medium-term Expenditure Framework in the capacity of Reform and Development Group within the Government of Nepal.
In the latter half of 2003, he was appointed as the Consul General of Nepal to Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People’s Republic of China. He was instrumental in the establishment of Hong Kong - Nepal Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong and in concluding the Memorandum of Understanding between Federation of Nepalese Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) and Hong Kong Chamber of Commerce in furthering bilateral economic ties between Nepal and Hong Kong.
Mr. Ghimire was promoted to Secretary of the Government of Nepal and was assigned to the Ministry of General Administration in August 2004. In addition to accomplishing the regular duties, he is credited to the successful accomplishment of the Governance Reform Program. He led several governance reform initiatives to improve the effectiveness of the service delivery from the government employees.
In July 2006, he was transferred to the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation and contributed to the revision and effective implementation of the open sky policies, air safety standards and tourism promotion in the country.
He became Secretary of the Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction in January 2008 and was entrusted with the important role of framing appropriate post-conflict policy and planning in Nepal’s gradual but throbbing emergence from a state of conflict. He was alsodeeply involved in conflict negotiations and management, rehabilitation of conflict affected persons, social integration and furtherance of transitional justice. He also revived Nepal Peace Trust Fund and mobilized substantial resources for the peace process.
Mr. Ghimire served as an Alternate Governor to the Governing Board of the International Monetary Fund from June 1998 for four years. He also served as the Temporary Alternate Governor of the Board of Governors of the Asian Development Bank for a number of times. He was also entrusted with the responsibility of the Operational Focal Point for Nepal to the Global Environment Facility.
Mr. Ghimire served many institutions in different capacities, both at the national and international levels. He was Chairperson of the Governing Board of the Employee Provident Fund of Nepal for two years, Governing Board Nepal Stock Exchange Company Ltd. for two years, Governing Board of Nepal Airlines Corporation (national flag carrier of Nepal) for one and half years, Governing Board of Nepal Tourism Board for one and half years.
He has served in two major training institutions of Nepal as a Member of the Governing Boards; i.e. Local Development Training Academy and Nepal Administrative Staff College for more than two years. Likewise, he also served as a Member of the Governing Boards - Nepal Arab Bank Ltd.; Bank of Kathmandu, National Trust for Nature Conservation and Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal, among others.
Mr. Ghimire has represented the Government of Nepal in many bilateral and multilateral negotiations and meetings. He has negotiated several development projects and programs for Nepal with the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank and other bilateral as well as multilateral development partners. He has participated in various regional and international meetings, seminars and conferences. In 2000, he presented Nepal’s economic reforms agenda in International Meeting on Nepal in London. He presented a paper on Plan Modeling Techniques in Nepal in SAARC Workshop in Delhi. He has presented papers as a resource person in the conferences organized by London School of Economics in London, Wilton Park Conference in London, Transparency International Conference in Prague, Japan International Cooperation Agency in Tokyo, Annual Conference on Transitional Justice in Bern. He has taken one month long advance training on Human Resource Management from University of New South Wales in Sydney in 1995.
Mr. Ghimire has published articles in journals, mostly on economic reforms, governance, foreign aid management and peace building. He is the co-editor (with Prof. Max E. Weber and others) of Bibliography on Environmental Studies (417pp. ISBN 974-8209-73-3), AIT, Bangkok, 1993.
Mr. Ghimire has been awarded with the Best Youth of the Year in 1999 by Nepal Jaycees, Best Civil Service Employee of the Year 2001 by the Government of Nepal and Best Alumni of Asian Institute of Technology Alumni Association by the Annual Meeting held in Indonesia in 2005. Mr. Ghimire is member in several professional organizations.