Lee Yong-pil, former spokesperson of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, took office Tuesday as the sixth president of the Korea Evaluation Institute of Industrial Technology (KEIT).
Lee is an industrial policy expert who held key positions at the ministry. Born in 1972, he graduated from Suseong High School in Gyeonggi Province and Seoul National University with a degree in agricultural economics, then earned a master's degree in economic policy and international management from the University of Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He entered public service through the 41st administrative examination and went on to serve as head of the ministry's management support division, director of materials convergence industry policy, director of advanced industry policy, head of the planning and coordination office, and first-grade spokesperson.
In his inauguration speech Tuesday, Lee said KEIT must go beyond being a research and development agency to become "the nation's top industrial technology innovation body — one that designs the future of Korean industry and leads industrial technology policy." He added that he would focus the agency's capabilities in four directions "to open a new future for KEIT at the center of change."
The four priorities Lee outlined are: AI-driven transformation of manufacturing and innovation in future strategic technologies; building a resilient industrial ecosystem; strengthening support for industrial technology policy; and becoming a more trusted R&D agency for its customers.
"We will lead a new leap for Korean manufacturing through AI-driven transformation and innovation in future strategic technologies," Lee said, adding that the government's M.AX initiative is "a national project to fundamentally transform the competitiveness of Korean manufacturing."
He said KEIT would further consolidate South Korea's lead in national strategic industries such as semiconductors, displays and biotech, while continuing to expand challenging R&D — including future platform technologies — to strengthen the agency's culture of innovation.
Lee also pledged to build a resilient industrial ecosystem to underpin economic growth. He said he would work to identify outstanding R&D results so they are not shelved when projects end, and to quickly establish a virtuous cycle in which competitive technologies attract investment and financing.
He said the agency would proactively identify technology strategies and promising future technologies for each industry, systematically analyze data and outcomes accumulated throughout the R&D cycle, and feed the findings back into policy. He added that KEIT would actively use agentic AI and data across planning, evaluation and performance management to raise the professionalism and efficiency of its work.
Lee said KEIT would conduct evaluations and management "fairly and transparently, uphold principles strictly, and become a responsible expert agency that works alongside researchers and companies to solve problems." He said the agency would also meet the government's and the public's expectations on securing strategies for future industries and strategic technologies, balanced national development, and technology security.
oskymoon@heraldcorp.com
