By Kim Yon-se
Staff Reporter
Kim Yong-duk, presidential secretary for economic affairs, is favored to become chairman of the Financial Supervisory Commission, sources at Cheong Wa Dae said Wednesday.
Kim, 56, will replace Yoon Jeung-hyun, whose three-year term expires Aug. 3.
Born in Jeongeup, North Jeolla Province, in 1950, Kim began his bureaucratic career in 1975 and worked at government offices such as the Ministry of Finance and Economy, the Korea Customs Service and the Ministry of Construction and Transportation.
He became presidential secretary for economic affairs after stepping down as vice minister of construction and transportation minister in late 2006 amid growing criticism over former real estate policies.
During his tenure as Korea Customs Service commissioner, Kim pushed for simplification of clearance procedures with a single window system and an Internet-based declaration system.
FSC Chairman Yoon has been active in rooting out unfair practices and speculative investments for the past years, since taking office. Since his inauguration in August 2004, there have been a series of major changes in the regulatory sector.
Yoon may have been seen as an extreme nationalist, but this view is unfair, given that he has pursued the equal treatment of domestic and foreign investors, according to analysts.
``People sometimes confuse the attraction of healthy foreign investors with that of speculative foreign investors,'' said an economist at the Samsung Economic Research Institute.
A former FSC official said that the prestige of regulatory bodies has been elevated after Yoon took office.
``Chairman Yoon has become distinguished among successive top regulators and other financial policymakers on the back of his decisive character,'' he said.
President Roh Moo-hyun will also appoint a new presidential secretary for economic affairs and vice minister of science and technology Thursday, Cheong Wa Dae sources said.