▲ Choo Kyung-ho, nominated for finance minister by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, shows up for work at Yoon's presidential transition committee headquarters in central Seoul on April 8, 2022. (Pool photo) (Yonhap)

(profile) finance minister-nominee

(profile) Financial bureaucrat-turned-lawmaker named Yoon's top economic policymaker

SEOUL, April 10 (Yonhap) -- Choo Kyung-ho, tapped as finance minister and deputy prime minister for economic affairs by President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol, is a two-term lawmaker and an ex-vice finance minister known for his experience and knowledge in economic and financial policymaking.

Choo, deputy floor leader of Yoon's People Power Party (PPP), has been leading the planning and coordination subcommittee on economic issues under Yoon's presidential transition committee since the March election.

Choo had widely been speculated for the job as he's considered to be a candidate with both professional expertise and experience in politics.

Choo passed the civil service exam in 1981 and spent more than 30 years of his career as a public official in the fields of real economy and financial policy.

He worked as a senior economist at the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development from 1999-2002, before serving as a counselor at the South Korean mission to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) from 2006-2009.

Choo returned to the Financial Services Commission, the top financial regulatory body, as head of the key financial policy department.

In 2010, Choo was appointed as a presidential secretary for economic and financial affairs by President Lee Myung-bak.

In 2013, Choo was named the first vice finance minister and promoted to the chief of the government policy coordination office under the Prime Minister's Office in 2014 during the Park Geun-hye government.

Choo is known to have played a major role in devising Park's key "three-year economic plan."

Choo entered politics as a member of the conservative Saenuri Party, now the People Power Party, with his win in the 2016 parliamentary election.

Choo won his second term as a lawmaker in the 2020 general elections and has served as a deputy floor leader of the PPP since last year.

Choo was born in Daegu, a conservative stronghold in the country's southeast, in 1960, and graduated from Korea University in Seoul with a business degree. He earned his master's degree in economics from the University of Oregon in the United States in 1993.

(END)

[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]