Cholpon Mambetova

 

Senior Integrity Specialist

Office of Anticorruption and Integrity

Asian Development Bank, Manila, Philippines

Public Policy Program (’97)

 

 

 

 

       

Please tell us about your career path so far. What is your area of specialization and how did you come to work in this area?

I started working almost the next day after I graduated from my first university in 1994. That was a transition time from soviet to market-oriented economy in the Kyrgyz Republic. I joined the newly established Government Agency on Foreign Investments where I worked for almost six years. I was in charge of coordinating development assistance that my country started to receive from international financial institutions since 1991, including IMF. In 1995, IMF announced its scholarship program for government officials to get a master’s degree in Public Policy. So, I was selected and before joining the Graduate School of Policy Science in Saitama University, the forerunner of GRIPS, in 1996, I had to successfully complete three months introductory program in Shanghai.

 

Upon my return from GRIPS in 1997, I continued working for the Government Agency on Foreign Investments and in 2001 joined the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to work on the Central Asia Regional Economic Cooperation Program, and developing and implementing infrastructure projects in various sectors. Since 2013 and up until present, I work in ADB’s Office of Anticorruption and Integrity, in Manila, that investigates allegations of fraud and corruption in ADB-financed activities in Asia-Pacific, and provides anticorruption knowledge and capacity development to its member countries.

 

You are currently serving as Senior Integrity Specialist in the Office of Anticorruption and Integrity at the Asian Development Bank in Manila. What are your main roles and responsibilities?

Since joining the Office of Anticorruption (OAI) in 2013, I have been investigating allegations of fraud, corruption and other integrity violations that were committed in ADB-financed projects in Asia and the Pacific region. Just recently, in October 2019, I moved to another OAI’s work stream on prevention and compliance, where I am promoting anticorruption and integrity awareness for ADB staff and governments in Asia and the Pacific.

 

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your work? And what have been the most interesting or rewarding aspects of your career thus far?

The biggest challenges in my work were to see negative effects of corruption on projects’ outcomes and people’s life, and to realize how difficult it is to fight systemic corruption and poor governance in certain countries.

 

The most rewarding aspects of my career are to meet people from many countries and backgrounds, and see positive outcomes of my work.

 

What led you to GRIPS? What was the most important thing you learned while here and how has your experience at GRIPS prepared you for future endeavours?

What led me to GRIPS was a strong desire to get a solid foundation on public policy that I could use upon return to my organization in the Government. However, I should admit that in the late 1990s and early 2000s the knowledge that I obtained was not really applicable. The country’s government system at that time was not flexible and receptive enough to apply the international best practice.

 

However, the education from GRIPS enabled me to pursue my career with and in international organizations.

 

Have you had any involvement, professional or otherwise, with Japan since your graduation?

Yes, I was lucky to get accepted to a JICA program in 1998, one year after I graduated from GRIPS. I also visited Japan and GRIPS with my family in 2016, almost 20 years since I joined GRIPS.

 

How do you maintain a balance between your work and the rest of your life? And what is your favorite thing to do when you are not working?

I have three children and a successful career, so balancing between my career and family is a challenge. I am very lucky to have great support from my husband, children, parents and mother-in-law who have helped me tremendously to enjoy a balanced life.

 

My favorite things to do when I am not working are reading books, including translated books from Japanese authors (Kobe Abe, Haruki Murakami and Kazuo Ishiguro), listening to and visiting operas, travelling, and meeting friends.

 

What do you miss about your home country, the Kyrgyz Republic?

There are three things that I miss most of all about the Kyrgyz Republic, my relatives and friends, wonderful nature and delicious food.

                                                                                  

What are some of your fondest memories of your time spent at GRIPS? And what do you miss about Japan?

The fondest memories of the time in GRIPS are people that I met, including classmates and teachers, and of course, Japan and its people. I always miss Japan for its ability to find harmony and meaning in simple things. Japanese traditions, culture, nature, habits, food are the things that I wish to enjoy often in Japan.

 

If you could give one piece of advice to anyone considering studying at GRIPS what would it be?

My first advice would be, learn Japanese properly. In my time in GRIPS, we had Japanese class only twice a week and I do regret that I did not enroll in additional Japanese language training outside GRIPS. My second advice would be, spent all your free time exploring the country, its far and remote cities and villages. During my GRIPS time I spent most of my stipend on travelling in Japan and I never regret about it. And my third advice would be socialize more with Japanese people with different backgrounds and practice your Japanese. What I admire a lot about Japanese people is how humble and approachable they are once they learn that you are a foreign student. Sorry, no advices on academic studying.

 

 

 

 

How would you like to maintain involved with the School? What do you expect from GRIPS as an alumnus and do you have any suggestions on how to further utilize the GRIPS alumni network?

I really appreciate that GRIPS keeps maintaining the alumni network and posts the Alumnus of the Month. It would be really great if alumni contact details are updated. I travel a lot and tried to contact my classmates in Asia (GRIPS intake of 1996) but the contacts that the GRIPS Alumni Office provided me did not work and I did not receive any responses to my emails. Another advice would be to post more news on alumni in FB or other social media.