Industry Minister nominee Ahn Duk-geun is the current trade minister of South Korea who has knowledge and experience in international trade.
The 55-year-old earned his bachelor’s degree in international economics at Seoul National University in 1990 and earned a doctoral degree at the University of Michigan in 1996.
Between 2000 and 2005, he served as a professor at the state-run Korea Development Institute’s School of Public Policy and Management and led the school’s information technology center as well as its trade strategy center.
He also served as an external adviser for the foreign ministry on free trade agreements in 2004, head of the strategic forum for the Trans-Pacific Partnership framework under the industry ministry from 2015-16, and a non-executive director of the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency in 2018.
Serving as the Yoon Suk Yeol government’s first trade minister, Ahn has focused on diversifying South Korea’s supply chains amid key trade partners’ protectionism policies, such as the United States’ Inflation Reduction Act and the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
His other achievements include signing economic partnership agreements and the trade and investment promotion framework on the bio, digital and food security industries as well as key mineral supply chains with a number of countries.
He also played an active role in promoting the southeastern port city of Busan’s failed bid to host the 2030 World Expo.
Source: Yonhap News Agency