President Lee Jae Myung appointed Cho Yong-bum, director general of the budget bureau at the Ministry of Planning and Budget, as the ministry's new vice minister Monday, the presidential office said. [Yonhap]
President Lee Jae Myung appointed Cho Yong-bum, director general of the budget bureau at the Ministry of Planning and Budget, as the ministry's new vice minister Monday, the presidential office said. [Yonhap]

Cho Yong-bum, 55, director general of the budget bureau at the Ministry of Planning and Budget, was appointed the ministry's new vice minister Monday.

A native of Jeju, Cho graduated from Jeju Saedaeboo High School and Seoul National University's College of Law before entering public service in 1995 through the 39th class of the national civil service examination. He is widely regarded as one of the government's foremost budget specialists, having held key positions across the budget sector throughout his career.

After serving as director of the trade adjustment division at the Ministry of Economy and Finance's international economy bureau in 2010, he moved to the budget bureau in 2013 as director of the budget standards division, marking the start of his full-time focus on budget work. He subsequently served as director of the administrative budget division, the land and infrastructure budget division, and the agriculture, forestry and maritime budget division, and also worked as an administrator in the presidential office's senior economic secretary's office.

In 2016 he took charge of the budget policy division, and in 2017 the budget coordination division, leading the day-to-day work of drafting both the main budget and supplementary budgets. He then served as deliberation officer for social welfare budgets and for overall budget coordination before being named director general of the budget bureau in December last year. Since the Ministry of Planning and Budget was established as a separate entity from the Ministry of Economy and Finance in January this year, he has served as its inaugural budget bureau director general, overseeing a national budget of 700 trillion won ($472 billion).

Earlier this year, as high oil prices weighed on the economy in the wake of the Middle East war, Cho played a central role in drafting and pushing through a 26.2 trillion won supplementary budget — dubbed the "war supplementary budget" — in just 29 days, the fastest pace on record. He has been credited with contributing to economic stability for households.

Cho is known for his strong drive, clean execution and a communication style that values openness and informality. His experience as spokesperson for the Ministry of Economy and Finance is also seen as an asset in dealing with the media.

In an employee survey conducted by the ministry's labor union, he was voted "the boss I want to emulate" for three consecutive years from 2013 to 2015 while serving as a division director, earning him a place in the union's "Hall of Fame."

His career profile: born in Jeju, 1971; Jeju Saedaeboo High School; College of Law, Seoul National University; graduate school of law, University of Wisconsin; graduate school of public policy, Korea Development Institute (KDI) School of Public Policy and Management; director, trade adjustment division, Ministry of Economy and Finance; director, budget standards division; director, administrative budget division; director, land and infrastructure budget division; director, agriculture, forestry and maritime budget division; administrator, senior economic secretary's office, presidential office; director, budget policy division; director, budget coordination division; head, expenditure restructuring task force; senior specialist, Asian Development Bank (ADB), Japan; spokesperson, Ministry of Economy and Finance; deliberation officer, social welfare budgets; deliberation officer, overall budget coordination; director general, budget bureau; director general, budget bureau, Ministry of Planning and Budget; vice minister, Ministry of Planning and Budget.


y2k@heraldcorp.com