Biographical Note                                           BIO/3452*

                                                            GA/AB/3513

                                                            11 September 2002

MURARI RAJ SHARMA OF NEPAL CHAIRMAN OF FIFTH COMMITTEE

      The Permanent Representative of Nepal, Murari Raj Sharma, was elected Chairman of the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) on 17 July this year.

Mr. Sharma was appointed Nepal's Permanent Representative to the United Nations on 20 July 2000.  Prior to that he served as Foreign Secretary from February 1998.  Mr. Sharma was Acting Foreign Secretary from November 1997, and Special Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs from May 1997.  Prior to that, he was Joint Secretary at the same Ministry as the head of its United Nations, International Organizations and International Law Division, from April 1993 to May 1997.  He was also responsible for the North-East and South-East Asia and Pacific Division from 1993 to 1994.

Joining Nepal’s Administration Service in 1978, he served as Section Officer at the Foreign Aid Coordination Division of the Ministry of Finance until 1982 and at the Americas Section of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from 1982 to 1983.  He was Under-Secretary with the Ministry of General Administration from 1983 to 1989 and with the Ministry of Home Affairs from 1989 to 1990. He became Joint Secretary in 1990 at the Ministry of Home Affairs, where he was in charge of the Planning and Special Services (Drug Control and Disaster Management) Division until 1991.  He then joined the Ministry of Finance as Joint Secretary and headed its Budget Division until 1993.

Holding a master’s degree in economics from Tribhuvan University of Nepal, Mr. Sharma also taught at the same University before entering the Civil Service.

A Hubert Humphrey Fellow at the American University in Washington, D.C.,

Mr. Sharma also holds a Master of Public and International Affairs from the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, and a Bachelor of Law from the Tribhuvan University of Nepal.

Born in April 1951, Mr. Sharma is married and has two sons.

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*     This supersedes Press Release BIO/3301 of 20 July 2000.