 senior advisor to MInister of Strategy and Finance |
By Cho Jin-seo
You don’t often see government officials in the Ministry of Strategy and Finance having loud music such as “We Will Rock You” as a mobile phone ringtone, or wear a plastic sports watch to work. But Lee Jun-kyu doesn’t care about the ministry’s officialdom. In fact, he doesn’t have the time to care.
As one of the brains on South Korea’s G20 team, Lee has spent most of his days this year outside the ministry, discussing heavily financial subjects such as the bank tax and sovereign debt with his teammates and foreign counterparts. His official title is a special advisor to Finance Minister Yoon Jeung-hyun, yet his first mission was singing Elvis Presely’s “Love Me Tender.”
“I was giving a presentation on the Korean economy to investors,” he recalls of the London event in February 2009, when foreign capital was escaping from Seoul’s equity and bond markets at a worrying pace. It was a time when the whole world was shaking from the financial crisis and investors’ confidence was hitting bottom.
“At the end of the presentation, I sang ‘Love Korea tender’ to the tune of the ‘Love Me Tender’ to soften up the mood. People clapped.”
It’s not clear how effective the song was on cold-blooded bankers, but anyway money began to return to Korea and the country survived the crisis.
Lee sees such unorthodox approaches can make a difference in the cruel world of international diplomacy, where reason and conspiracy usually rules. Equipped with the look of a taekwondo fighter and a pleasing baritone voice, he surely will give a good impression at the G20 negotiating tables.
Lee was a senior economist at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy until Yoon called for his help early last year. The ministry has its fair share of PhD holders inside, but most of them are bureaucratic-minded and are not used to international discussions. At the G20, Lee is representing Korea’s national interest together with Minister Yoon, Deputy Minister Shin Je-yoon, and chief of the G20 preparation committee Lee Chang-yong.
This year has been so busy that he could not spare time to tend to his knee, which he injured late last year. “It will take a small surgery, but I cannot afford the time for rehabilitation until after the Seoul Summit,” he said, limping a bit as he scurried to find a cup of water for this reporter.
“The Toronto Summit in June didn’t solve many problems, so most of the decisions must be made at the Seoul Summit. It’s a very big responsibility for us,” he added.
Politics is as complicated and intricate at the G20 as in any other multi-national gathering. Roughly speaking, the G20 is divided into three groups ― the United States; the G7 except the United States; and countries that are not in the G7.
‘We will buy breakfast’
G7 countries do not like their power on the global economy being diluted by the G20. (The United States is an exception in the G7, because it is always the final decision maker regardless of how many countries are in the discussion, he said) As a host of the summit, Seoul is playing a “bridging role” between the G7 and developing nations, Lee hopes.
One good thing is that Korea’s economic and political status seems to be improving these days. Last week, he was invited to a working breakfast with a Canadian vice minister in Washington. The Canadians tried to pick up the bill, but Lee insisted that he would pay ― Canada consented.
“They said ‘Okay, we will let you pay it, because your country has larger reserves in its purse’,” he said, referring to South Korea’s and Asia’s expanding foreign exchange reserves.
He admits that certain missions at the G20 are difficult to accomplish. One is reform of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the world’s financial rescue entity. The fund has been criticized for yielding too much control to European nations in comparison to their shrinking economic power. For example, Korea’s quota is little more than a half of Belgium’s.
“The talk of IMF reform has been there for over the two decades. If we fail to do it at this year’s G20 meetings, then the next chance won’t come for another two decades,” Lee said.
Certain boats such as the IMF are hard to rock, but developing nations may be dreaming of a mutiny at November’s Seoul meeting.
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