Namgay Tshering
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Lyonpo Namgay Tshering is a Bhutanese politician who served as Finance Minister from November 2018 to January 2024 in the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa government of Lotay Tshering. A public-health professional before entering politics, he represented the Dokar-Sharpa constituency in Punakha, oversaw the COVID-19 fiscal response anchored by the Druk Gyalpo's Relief Kidu, and supervised early preparations for Bhutan's graduation from least developed country status.
Namgay Tshering (born c. 1979) is a Bhutanese politician and former public-health professional. He served as Minister of Finance of Bhutan from 7 November 2018 to 28 January 2024, a tenure encompassing the entire term of the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa (DNT) government led by Lotay Tshering.[1][2]
Elected to the National Assembly from the Dokar-Sharpa constituency in Punakha Dzongkhag at the 2018 general election, he held the finance portfolio through the COVID-19 pandemic and the early fiscal preparations for Bhutan's exit from least developed country status, currently scheduled for late 2023. He did not stand at the 2023–24 National Assembly elections and was succeeded as Finance Minister by Lekey Dorji in the Tshering Tobgay PDP cabinet.[1][3]
Education and pre-political career
Namgay Tshering took a Bachelor of Science in Communication from the University of Madras in India and a Master of Public Health from Chulalongkorn University in Thailand. His pre-political career was spent largely in the public-health and donor-financed development sectors. Between the late 1990s and 2018 he held positions including project coordinator for World Bank and Global Fund-financed health projects in Bhutan, planning officer in the Ministry of Health, programme manager of the National HIV/AIDS Control Programme (2014–2018) and national professional officer at the World Health Organization country office in Thimphu (2014–2016).[1]
2018 election and entry into Cabinet
Namgay Tshering joined the Druk Nyamrup Tshogpa, then a relatively new opposition party founded in 2013 by a group including the surgeon-turned-politician Lotay Tshering. At the 2018 National Assembly election the DNT carried 30 of the 47 seats, defeating the Druk Phuensum Tshogpa, and Namgay Tshering was returned from Dokar-Sharpa. He was sworn in as Minister of Finance on 7 November 2018.[2][4]
Tenure as Finance Minister, 2018–2024
Pre-pandemic fiscal management
The early period of his tenure was occupied with the conclusion of the eleventh five-year plan and the preparation of the twelfth (2018–2023). The 2019–2020 budget continued the established Bhutanese practice of large external-grant-financed capital expenditure, with India remaining the dominant grant donor and an expanding role for the World Bank, Asian Development Bank and Japan International Cooperation Agency.[5]
COVID-19 fiscal response
From March 2020 onwards the Finance Ministry was the lead coordinating body for the fiscal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The principal instrument was the Druk Gyalpo's Relief Kidu (also rendered as the National Resilience Fund), a Royal initiative providing income support to individuals affected by tourism and small-business shutdowns and interest deferment on commercial bank loans. The Kidu was funded by a combination of Royal Treasury contributions, government counterpart financing, donations and concessional borrowing. Namgay Tshering presented the response in international forums including IMF and ADB consultations, and Bhutan was widely cited in 2020–2021 as a small-state model for combined health and fiscal management of the pandemic.[5][6]
LDC graduation preparations and the 2023 budget
The third major file of his tenure was preparation for Bhutan's graduation from least developed country status, scheduled for late 2023, which involved the loss of LDC-specific concessional trade and aid arrangements. The 2023 budget, presented in June 2023, included a fiscal framework intended to manage the immediate transition costs and to maintain external grant inflows during the run-up to the 2023–24 National Assembly elections.[5]
Macroeconomic management
Through his tenure Namgay Tshering was responsible, jointly with the Royal Monetary Authority, for the management of the ngultrum's peg to the Indian rupee and the country's rupee reserves. The pandemic put unusual pressure on rupee reserves, particularly through the collapse of tourism receipts in 2020–2022, and the Finance Ministry coordinated draw-downs on rupee credit lines from the Reserve Bank of India to maintain trade financing.[5]
Post-2023
The DNT did not survive the 2023 primary round of the National Assembly election, with the People's Democratic Party and the Bhutan Tendrel Party advancing to the general round held on 9 January 2024. Namgay Tshering left office on 28 January 2024 with the swearing-in of the Tshering Tobgay government and has not, as of the time of writing, returned to elected office.[3][4]
References
- Namgay Tshering — Wikipedia
- Finance Ministers — Ministry of Finance, Royal Government of Bhutan
- Dakyen conferred to Prime Minister, Speaker and Cabinet Ministers on 28 January 2024 — Ministry of Foreign Affairs and External Trade
- The DNT Cabinet — The Bhutanese
- Containing COVID-19 in the Land of the Thunder Dragon — IMF Finance & Development
- ADB President, Bhutan Finance Minister Discuss COVID-19 Response — Asian Development Bank
- H. E. Namgay Tshering — National Assembly of Bhutan member profile
See also
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