ALL PLENARY SPEAKERS

Dinesh Kumar Ghimire

Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation, Nepal 

Dinesh Kumar Ghimire is the Secretary at the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation, Government of Nepal. He is, currently, the chairperson of three companies viz: Vidyut Utpadan company Limited (VUCL), Rashtriya Prasharan Grid Company Limited (RPGCL), and the Hydroelectricity Investment and Development Company Limited (HIDCL) all under the Ministry of Energy Water Resources and Irrigation. He is also on the Board of Directors of Nepal Electricity Authority. He has been associated with the power sector of Nepal for more than three decades. During his service in various government organizations, he was involved in planning, budgeting, monitoring, and evaluation of power projects, Project Development Agreement negotiation, private sector promotion, promoting renewable energy projects, etc. Mr. Ghimire has led many bilateral negotiations regarding water and power issues with neighboring countries like India, China, and Bangladesh. He also served as a Governing Board Member from Nepal in SAARC Energy Centre and has been engaged in Regional and Sub-regional forums like BBIN, SASEC, SAARC, and BIMSTEC. Apart from his full-time service in the Government, Mr. Ghimire has teaching experience in various engineering colleges viz: Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk, Kathmandu Engineering College, Advanced College of Engineering and Management, Katipur City College and Khwopa College of Engineering both at Masters and Bachelor levels. Ghimire received his M. Tech. in Hydroelectric System Engineering and Management from the Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India, and his undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Rajasthan University, Jaipur, India.

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Masatsugu Asakawa

Asian Development Bank

Masatsugu Asakawa is the President of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Chairperson of ADB’s Board of Directors. He was elected President by ADB’s Board of Governors and assumed office on 17 January 2020. Prior to joining ADB, he served as Special Advisor to Japan’s Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, and has a close-to-four decades’ career at the Ministry of Finance with diverse professional experiences that cut across both domestic and international fronts. In the immediate aftermath of the Global Financial Crisis, Mr. Asakawa, in his capacity as Executive Assistant to Prime Minister Taro Aso, took part in the first G20 Leaders’ Summit Meeting in November 2008. He was instrumental in orchestrating a globally coordinated financial package to abate the financial crisis, including a $100 billion loan from Japan to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Then in 2016, in his capacity as Vice Minister of Finance for International Affairs, he took on a leading role for the G7 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Sendai under the Japanese presidency, where a sustainable and inclusive development agenda was extensively discussed. Most recently, he served as Finance Deputy for the G20 meetings under the Japanese presidency, playing a pivotal role for the success of the G20 Osaka Summit as well as the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors meeting in Fukuoka. Some of his outstanding achievements in Osaka include endorsement by the G20 Leaders of the “G20 Principles for Quality Infrastructure Investment” and the “G20 Shared Understanding on the Importance of UHC Financing in Developing Countries”. Before these, he had occupied various prominent positions within the Ministry of Finance, including director positions in charge of development policy issues, foreign exchange markets and international tax policy. Mr. Asakawa’s professional experience extends beyond the realms of the Japanese government. Most notably, he served as Chief Advisor to ADB President Kimimasa Tarumizu between 1989 and 1992, during which time he spearheaded the creation of a new office that focuses on strategic planning. Also, he had frequent engagement with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in such positions as Chair for Committee on Fiscal Affairs (2011-2016). Furthermore, he was a senior staff at the Fiscal Affairs Department of the IMF (1996-2000). In the meantime, he gave lectures as Visiting Professor at the Graduate School of Economic Science, Saitama University (2006-2009), and at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo (2012-2015). Mr. Asakawa obtained his BA from University of Tokyo (Economics Faculty) in 1981, and MPA from Princeton University, USA, in 1985.

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Ramesh Subramaniam

Asian Development Bank

Mr. Ramesh Subramaniam has been with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for over 25 years, since March 1997. He has worked in different functions and areas in over 25 countries across the various sub-regions of Asia and the Pacific. In his current capacity as Director General of the Southeast Asia Department (SERD) from July 2017, he is in charge of ADB’s relationship with the 10 countries in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and Timor-Leste, as well as all of its sovereign engagement. He has been a member of various Global Agenda/Future Councils of the World Economic Forum (WEF) since 2012 and currently serves as the co-chair of the ASEAN Hub of WEF’s Sustainable Development Investment Partnership. With a talent pool of over 430 globally and locally recruited staff, SERD has over $25 billion in projects under implementation. SERD also has several ongoing policy and structural reform programs with over $12 billion in funds disbursed and under monitoring. ADB’s new sovereign commitments in Southeast Asia stand at around $7 billion per year in transport, energy, urban, agriculture and natural resources, human development, finance, and public management sectors, besides regional cooperation and integration. Since February 2020, Mr. Subramaniam has been steering ADB’s work in the sub-region to help countries in their COVID-19 response. ADB mobilized close to $6 billion in exceptional financing for economic and health sector measures in Southeast Asia. The principal focus of the Southeast Asia Department from 2021 onwards is on post-pandemic recovery and helping the region deal effectively with the impact of climate change. The department has adopted the “3M Approach": mainstreaming climate change in all of ADB’s work; mobilizing resources to support climate adaptation and mitigation; and messaging on the need for just and affordable climate transition. Mr. Subramaniam has also served as the director general of ADB's Procurement, Portfolio and Financial Management Department (2015–2017); deputy director general of SERD (2013–2015); senior director in the Office of Regional Economic Integration (2011–2013); director of public management and financial sector (2007–2010) as well as director of urban infrastructure (2010–2011) in Central and West Asia; and principal economist and deputy country director in Indonesia (2003–2007). With a strong focus on policy and institutional reforms across the region, Mr. Subramaniam seeks to help the region’s developing member countries reduce poverty, achieve equitable growth, and attract greater private sector investments. He has led several important initiatives such as the establishment of the ASEAN Infrastructure Fund, various critical post-crisis counter-cyclical reform and restructuring programs in many countries, as well as post-disaster reconstruction projects across the Asia and the Pacific. The ASEAN Policy Network and the ASEAN Innovation Hub were established under his leadership in 2017. He also oversaw the establishment of the ASEAN Catalytic Green Finance Facility. Among other aspects of his work, Mr. Subramaniam is most humbled by his role in formulating ADB’s support to developing member countries after several devastating disasters, including the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami; the 2006 Yogyakarta earthquake; the 2006 Pakistan earthquake; the 2009 Pakistan floods; the 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines; the 2018 Palu earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia; and most recently the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In parallel, Mr. Subramaniam has maintained strong interest in education as an instrument for change. Improving social service delivery has been a key part of his support for public sector reforms in many countries. Outside of ADB, he is involved in a range of service activities in livelihood, healthcare, and education, with the aim of promoting basic yet fundamental human values of love, truth, peace, right conduct, and non-violence in society overall. Mr. Subramaniam has an MA in economics from the University of Madras, India (1988) and a PhD in economics from McMaster University, Canada, where he was also a lecturer (1990–1993). He has been a research fellow on industry at the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom from December 1993 to January 1994, and a Rockefeller fellow at Yale University Economic Growth Center from February 1994 to March 1997.

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