hankyoreh

His image as the “economy president” was cited as the biggest reason for President-elect Lee Myung-bak’s landslide victory. Though he had once served as chief executive officer of one of Korea’s largest conglomerates, a series of election pledges to revive the economy also helped him to reinforce his image.

Lee’s key election pledge, dubbed 747, is to increase annual economic growth to seven percent, raise per capita income to US$40,000 in 10 years and make South Korea one of the world’s top seven economies. Other pledges include a plan to create three million jobs, deregulation, tax cuts, the creation of an international science-themed city and a canal linking Seoul to the southern port city of Busan.

Those who helped Lee produce these pledges are expected to play direct or indirect roles in his new administration. Lee’s economic policy aides include former veteran bureaucrats, lawmakers specializing in the economy and a crop of bright, young professors. Most of them support deregulation based on market principles.

Among the former bureaucrats likely to figure prominently in the new administration, former Vice Finance Minister Kang Man-soo is at the top of the list. Along with Kwak Seung-joon, an economics professor at Korea University, Kang was one of the architects of the 747 pledge. When Lee was the mayor of Seoul, Kang helped him to manage the city’s economic policies as the head of the city-affiliated Seoul Development Institute.

Lee and Kang first met at Somang Church in 1981. Kang, who stepped down from his vice ministerial post in the wake of the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis, has for the past decade been a outsider in the bureaucratic community. If Kang were to assume an important post related to either finance or the economy in the next administration, it would herald a significant change from the economic policies of the current administration because he has strongly criticized these policies in newspaper articles written over the past decade.

Yoon Jin-sik, who served as vice chairman of a special committee on the economy during Lee’s election campaign, is also a longtime bureaucrat. Yoon was a commerce minister during the administration of President Roh Moo-hyun and a vice finance minister under Roh’s predecessor, former President Kim Dae-jung. Unlike Kang, whose specialty was macroeconomic polices, Yoon was focused on devising plans to reinvigorate the economy for the lower class during this year’s election campaign. Yoon, who is said to be one of the candidates for head of the president-elect’s transition team, is also cited as one of the candidates, along with Kang and Lee Han-koo, the chief policymaker of the Grand National Party, to be the finance minister in the next administration.

Lee Han-koo, the GNP’s chief policymaker, is a third-term lawmaker with both a corporate and bureaucratic background. While he was neutral during the party primary, he played the role of incorporating the party’s platform into that of Lee Myung-bak’s campaign during the recent election. He is often singled out as a likely candidate for head of the transition team’s economic division.

Rep. Choi Gyeong-hwan of the GNP, as the organizer of the special committee on the economy during Lee’s campaign, put the finishing touches on Lee’s economic platform. Choi, whose has had careers as a bureaucrat, reporter and politician, is credited with being adept at creating personal networks. Choi, who supported the GNP’s former chairwoman, Park Geun-hye, during the party’s primary, went on to serve as a liaison between Park and President-elect Lee, whose relations following their fierce battle for the party’s nomination have a tendency to be somewhat tense. Other lawmakers specializing in the economy, who are likely to be part of Lee’s transition team are Rep. Lee Jong-koo and Yoon Geon-young.

Among the relatively young scholars, those in their 40s to 60s, likley to hold positions on the transition team, Korea University Professor Kwak Seung-joon, who was the head of Lee’s campaign policy planning team, is foremost on the list. Most of Lee’s campaign pledges, including those dealing with the economy, foreign affairs, security, education and welfare, were reviewed by Kwak. People close to the situation say that it is possible that Kwak may serve as the lead organizer for the transition team. In addition, Kwak is widely expected to be appointed as the top economic advisor to President-elect Lee.

Hwang Young-key, former chairman of Woori Financial Holdings, was vice chairman, with Yoon Jin-sik, on the special committee on the economy during Lee’s election campaign. In this capacity, he mapped out corporate pledges, such as a plan to ease rules preventing large industrial companies from owning a stake in banks, an overhaul of the state-owned Korea Development Bank and a set of measures for consumer financing. Though Hwang is cited as a possible candidate for chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, his prospects are unclear because he has allegedly been linked to financial irregularities at Samsung Group. The nation’s largest conglomerate is about to undergo investigation by an independent counsel into allegations that it has a maintained a vast network of slush funds hidden in dummy accounts and used to bribe top officials.

The brains behind Lee’s so-called Grand Canal project include Jang Seok-hyo, a former vice mayor of Seoul, Yoo Woo-ik, head of the International Policy Research Institute, and Rep. Park Seung-hwan. All three would be likely to take important positions if the transition team were to set up a subcommittee on the canal project.

One of the pledges Lee made while he was running for office was the construction of a massive canal connecting Seoul to Busan. In this project, there are echoes of the canal which earned him popularity as the mayor of Seoul, the restoration of the Cheonggye Stream from cement-covered road to popular tourist destination. Though his opponents have raised doubts about the viability of such an enormous project, Lee is said to still be considering it.


There are a number of people who could lead an exploratory committee on another of Lee’s pledges to build an international city devoted to science and business in South Choongcheong Province. These include Seoul National University Professor Min Dong-pil; Rep. Seo Sang-ki; Ewha Womans University Professor Lee Joong-seung; Park Chan-mo, a former president of POSTECH; and Bae Eun-hee, president of Regen Biotech.

Other prominent academics and intellectuals could be added to the transition team as well. it is believed that Seoul National University Professor Cho Dong-seong will be in charge of attracting foreign investment, while Baek Yong-ho, an economics professor of Ewha Womans University, boasts a pool of economic experts. Other professors are: Kim Woo-sang of Yonsei University, Kwak Young-beom of Hansung University, Choi Do-seong of Seoul National University and Kang Myeong-heon of Dankook University.

Meanwhile, some analysts expect that former Information and Telecommunication Minister Chin Dae-je, who publicly announced his endorsement for the president-elect at the end of the campaign, will also take an important position in the new administration.


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