Deputy Prime Minister Hong Presents Unusual Plaque of Appreciation to Senior Official Leaving Ministry of Economy and Finance

Encouragement for Deputy Ministers and Chief of Policy Office Moving to Overseas Agencies
High-Ranking Officials' Positions Shrinking as Politicians from Affiliated Agencies Take Over
Personnel Bottleneck Hard to Resolve... Large-Scale Promotion of Section Chiefs Conducted on the Same Day

[Asia Economy Reporters Kim Hyunjung and Moon Chaeseok] Hong Nam-ki, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Finance, unusually presented plaques of appreciation to first-grade senior public officials who are moving to overseas institutions after retirement.

According to the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 29th, Deputy Minister Bang Gi-seon and Director Baek Seung-ju of the Planning and Coordination Office were presented with plaques of appreciation the day before. Deputy Minister Bang is scheduled to move to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, Philippines, as an Executive Director starting next month on the 1st, and Director Baek is set to become the Deputy Director of the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI) in Tokyo, Japan. It is known that Hong personally instructed the preparation of the plaques as a gesture of farewell to them.

The attention on awarding plaques of appreciation to senior public officials is closely related to the personnel stagnation situation within the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Their retirement has somewhat eased the personnel bottleneck.

Most first-grade or higher senior officials of the Ministry of Economy and Finance move to affiliated institutions, but the places to move to are gradually disappearing. Heads of external agencies such as the Korea Customs Service and Public Procurement Service, which belong to the Ministry, have already been filled by internal personnel or politicians. For the successor to Cho Yong-man, President of the Korea Minting and Security Printing Corporation whose term expires this month, Ban Jang-sik, former Blue House Senior Secretary for Jobs, is a strong candidate. The current Director of the Tax Policy Bureau is also expected to move for smooth personnel adjustments, but due to the lack of suitable positions, it is highly likely that he will retire early. The only notable candidate for the President of the Korea Investment Corporation (KIC), to be replaced in March, is Jin Seung-ho, Planning Director of the National Balanced Development Committee, who is from the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

A Ministry of Economy and Finance official stated, "In the past, even retired officers who had served in affiliated institutions were given positions, but now it is difficult even to fill positions with active officers."

On the day plaques of appreciation were awarded to senior officials, the Ministry also carried out a large-scale promotion of officials including section chiefs. The total number of promotions, including senior public officials and deputy directors, reached 18. This is an unusually large scale compared to last year’s five deputy director promotions.

Inside and outside the ministry, this was evaluated as an effort to soothe the organization. Despite being overworked throughout last year due to COVID-19, the ministry was criticized during policy coordination between the ruling party and the government for "using fiscal excuses to avoid responsibility," and recently, it has repeatedly appeared to be swayed by political pressure, causing it to fall out of favor among newly appointed officials. A budget office official even submitted a resignation letter citing reasons such as pursuing studies at an artificial intelligence (AI) graduate school.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.