Mr Kim Hak-Su

United Nations Under Secretary-General Mr. Kim Hak-Su, a national of the Republic of Korea, assumed the post of Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) on 1 July 2000, following appointment by the United Nations Secretary-General Mr. Kofi Annan.

Prior to his appointment, Mr. Kim, a prominent economist, had served as the Republic of Korea's Ambassador for International Economic Affairs.

Mr. Kim began his distinguished professional career in 1960 as an economist with the Republic of Korea's central bank, the Bank of Korea.

In 1969, Mr. Kim served as Secretary to the Minister of Commerce and Industry and was the London Representative of the Bank of Korea between 1971 and 1973.

In 1977, he moved into the private sector, joining Daewoo Corporation as Executive Director and President of DAEWOO International Steel Corporation in New York in 1979.

Mr. Kim joined the United Nations system in September 1981 as Chief Planning Officer and Chief Technical Adviser under the United Nations Department for Technical Cooperation and Development in the Pacific island states of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

In 1989, after eight years of United Nations duty, Mr. Kim accepted a position as Senior Research Fellow at the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy, researching and publishing on many substantive issues regarding international economic cooperation.

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

Married with three children, Mr. Kim was born in Wonju, Republic of Korea, and studied as an undergraduate at Yonsei University. He later earned a master's degree from Edinburgh University, United Kingdom, and a Ph.D. in economics from the University of South Carolina, in the United States of America.