South Korea’s impressive, timely and comprehensive strategy in controlling the spread of the coronavirus has earned praise from the director general of the WHO. In this webcast moderated by Korea Society President Thomas Byrne, Mr. Dae Joong Lee, Director of Development, Finance Division at the Ministry of Economy and Finance in South Korea, discusses how the country coordinated among ministries, agencies and the private sector in its response to the pandemic. The conversation also examine the government’s fiscal measures taken to mitigate the economic impact of COVID-19.
Korea’s Campaign against the Coronavirus Pandemic:
A View from the Ministry of Economy and Finance
with Dae Joong Lee
Thursday, June 11, 2020 | 8 AM
The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017
ABOUT THE SPEAKER:
Dae Joong Lee
Director of Development, Finance Division
Ministry of Economy and Finance
Republic of Korea
Mr. Dae Joong Lee oversees Korea’s development finance cooperation policy and participates in the International Development Projects Committee under the Prime Minister’s Office, which coordinates bilateral and multilateral cooperation and humanitarian assistance projects. He is responsible for coordinating various bilateral and multilateral cooperation, mainly World Bank and also manages the EDCF, Korean government’s development loan, which amounts to $10 billion dollars.
Before current duty at the Ministry, as a Trade Policy Director, he managed bilateral trade issues like renegotiation of KORUS FTA with the U.S. and major trading partners like the EU, Japan, China and ASEAN. He participated in various bi and multi-lateral FTA negotiations including Korea-US FTA, RCEP, CPTPP, Pacific Alliance and more. In October 2019, he was in charge of the South Korean government’s waiver declaration of WTO Developing Country status. As an International Financial Cooperation Director in 2016, he was responsible for the IMF annual meeting, the Article 4 consultation of the IMF and G20 International Finance Architecture working group.
Mr. Lee began his public service in Korean government in 1997 at the Ministry of Labor where he was representing the Korean government at International Labor Organization. From 2006 to 2008, he also served as Assistant Secretary to the President for Economic Policy for two years where his work was highly appreciated. He took important tasks of implementing national policy agenda such as tax and pension reform, national health care and balanced growth. From 2008 to 2011, he served as the spokesperson of Korean Embassy to the United Kingdom in London and responded to various economic and geo-political media inquiries from the BBC, Financial Times, the Economists and the major news groups Most recently in 2011 and 2012, he played a key role in drafting a historic new “Basic Act on Co-operatives” and recently published a book on the ‘Basic Act on Cooperatives.’ Mr. Lee has been invited to speak on “New Cooperatives Act” at various conferences and workshops including the 9th Asia-Pacific Co-operatives Ministers’ Conference in March 2012 and Korean National Assembly hearing. From 2012 to 2014, he was seconded to Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat (TCS) among Korea, China and Japan. He was in charge of organizing the annual Trilateral Summit and Foreign Ministers Meetings and conducted a number of joint trilateral research projects among China, Japan and Korea. Mr. Lee received a Master’s degree in Futures Study from KAIST in 2017 and in Economics from Tufts University in 1996 and a Bachelors’ degree in Economics from UC Berkeley in 1995. He is currently undergoing his Ph.D. study at KAIST with focus on futures of North Korea economy and recently published the article on the “Alternative Futures of North Korea” at Futures Journal (SSCI journal). In 2007, Mr. Lee received the Distinguished Service Award by the Chief of Staff to the President of Korea, Mr. Moon Jae-in. He enjoys sports and plays basketball, volleyball and hiking.
