Mr. Kim Hak-Su, a national of the Republic of Korea, served as the 8th Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) from 2000 to 2007.

Mr. Kim was the Ambassador for International Economic Affairs of the Republic of Korea and a prominent economist. He has vast experience in central banking, development planning, government think-tanks and private sector management, as well as international organizations.

Mr. Kim began his professional career in 1960 as a central bank economist, served as Secretary to the Minister of Commerce and Industry in 1969 and worked for the London Representative Office of the Bank of Korea (1971-1973). He joined Daewoo Corporation in 1977 as Executive Director and served ACWOO International Corporation in New York as President.

Mr. Kim worked as Chief Planning Officer and Chief Technical Adviser under the United Nations Department for Technical Cooperation and Development, during most of the 1980s. He joined the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy as a Senior Research Fellow, researching and publishing on issues regarding international economic cooperation during 1989 to 1993.

He served as President of the Hanil Banking Institute before taking up the recent post of Secretary-General of the Colombo Plan, based in Colombo, Sri Lanka (1995-1999). He revitalized the 24-member country intergovernment Colombo Plan in Asia and the Pacific, stressing human resources development and focusing on South-South cooperation.

He was appointed Ambassador for International Economic Affairs in June 1999, attending various international meetings as the head of his Government’s delegation. Mr. Kim was born in a rural area of Wonju, Republic of Korea, studied as an undergraduate at Yonsei University, earned a Master’s degree from Edinburgh University, United Kingdom, and a PhD in economics from the University of South Carolina, United States.