(profile) Finance minister-designate tasked to steer economy through global recession

SEOUL, Jan. 19 (Yonhap) -- Yoon Jeung-hyun, appointed Monday to lead South Korea's finance ministry, is a well-known administrator respected for his financial expertise and strong leadership which experts hope he can draw on to help steer the local economy through a global recession, observers said Monday.

Born in 1946, Yoon majored in law at Seoul National University and passed the
state civil examination in 1971, starting his career as a public servant. He
spent most of his career at the finance ministry, where he accumulated expertise
in taxation and finance.
Leaving the ministry briefly after the nation was hit by the Asia-wide financial
meltdown in 1997, he returned as head of the Financial Supervisory Committee and
the Financial Supervisory Service in 2004, a position he held until 2007.
Yoon will replace Kang Man-soo, who has been under pressure to resign after many
critics say he lost market trust due to his controversial economic polices,
including alleged intervention in the currency market to keep the won weak
against the dollar for brisker exports.
Kang, the first finance minister under the Lee Myung-bak administration, was
given the task of reinvigorating the nation's slowing economy when he assumed the
post in February last year.
He leaves the post at a challenging time for his successor, as the economy is
reeling from growing global recession woes in the wake of the financial turmoil
that begain in September when the investment bank Lehman Brothers collapsed.
Many investment banks and research institutes lowered their 2009 growth
projections for Asia's fourth-largest economy to the 1-percent range. Some
painted bleaker pictures, projecting the first recession in a decade.
kokobj@yna.co.kr