Joshi returned to the tourism board

Board member Rajendra Lama said Joshi was appointed as the sixth CEO of the board on Thursday in a meeting chaired by Secretary of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Civil Aviation Ganesh Prasad Pandey.

The board was without a CEO after the incumbent CEO Dhananjay Regmi completed his four-year term on 14 Jan 080. The three-member 'Executive Chief Selection Sub-Committee' chaired by Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism Indu Ghimire recommended the names of Joshi, Nirwaman CEO Regmi and Dnyaneshwar Singh Mahato among the 14 candidates who applied for the position of CEO through open competition in the board meeting on Thursday.

Among them, Joshi was appointed CEO by the majority of members, Lama said. In the decision to appoint Joshi as CEO, among the 10 members, Madan Acharya from Pokhara, who represents the CPN Samajwadi Party as a board member, said another board member has a different opinion.

Joshi was the fourth CEO in the board established in 053 and earlier in 072. He started his service as an officer with the establishment of the board and was appointed as the CEO of the board through an open competition in 2007. Regmi was appointed as the fifth CEO after his term ended in December 2016. The board was without a CEO after Regmi's four-year term ended on 14 Jan 080.

The Board of Directors chaired by then Tourism Secretary Deepak Kafle called for applications on 080 Chait 24 to appoint the CEO. In the advertisement made by the board for the CEO, the employees of the same Hikmat Singh Air, Shraddha Shrestha, Santosh Vikram Thapa, Laxman Gautam and Navin Pokharel applied. Similarly, Vijay Nepal, Padam Van, Thakur Devkota, Rajaram KC, Gyanin Rai, Dyaneshwar Mahato, Surya Bahadur Ghimire, Gyanendra Adhikari, Deepak Bastakoti, Chaksu Malla, Kamal Dodhri, Ramchandra Sedhain and Rajaram Giri had applied for the same. 20 people, including the current CEO of the board Regmi and former CEO Joshi, filed the application.

The main source of income of the Tourism Board, which was established with the aim of promoting Nepal's tourism potential around the world, is the 1000 rupees paid by foreigners returning from visiting Nepal at the Tribhuvan International Airport. The board, which projected a budget of around 1 billion last year, has 64 employees including 6 directors, 21 managers, 32 officers, 3 messengers and 2 drivers.

Tourism Board's Chief Executive Officer's term of office is four years. The Board of Directors has 5 members from the private sector namely Ramprasad Sapkota, Milan Devkota, Rajendra Bahadur Lama, Rishiram Bhandari and Madan Acharya. On behalf of the government, there are 5 members in the board headed by Tourism Secretary Balsagar Giri, Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Finance, Director General of Immigration Department Koshahari Niraula, Director General of Civil Aviation Authority Pradeep Adhikari and Director General of National Parks and Wildlife Conservation Department Sindhuprasad Dhungana. The Secretary of the Board of Directors is the CEO of the Tourism Board.