IMF Asia and Pacific Department Director

Hubert Neiss, the chief negotiator for the International Monetary Fund (IMF), entered the Gimpo Airport in a short hair cut and with an indifferent look on Nov. 26, 1997. He was director of IMF Asia and Pacific Department. When Korea was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy, he was like an angel of death with a rescue fund for Koreans.

Two days later, Neiss met the Korean delegation including Finance Minister Lim Chang-ryul at the penthouse on the 23rd floor of Hilton Hotel in Seoul. The Korean delegation gritted their teeth at the high interest rate and strong currency package in return for its rescue funds. The event vividly showed the humiliation that a country can suffer when the government coffer is empty. Koreans lamented, “Korea is the IMF’s colony,” and gave Neiss a nickname an “economic governor.”

Neiss was succeeded by Yusuke Horiguchi (Japan), David Burton (U.K.) and Anoop Singh (India) for the director of IMF Asia and Pacific Department in charge of some 40 Asia-Pacific countries including Korea, China, Japan, and India. Rhee Chang-yong, chief economist at the Asia Development Bank, will take the position as the first Korean for three years starting from February next year. The recommendation by Lawrence Summers, former U.S. Treasury Secretary and professor at Harvard University, was critical to his appointment. Summers is trusted by U.S. President Barack Obama and taught Rhee at Harvard.

Summers visited Korea in October and asked President Park Geun-hye to send Rhee to the IMF. Finance Minister Hyun Oh-seok recommended him whenever he met Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF. When Olivier Blanchard, chief economist at the IMF, was an economics professor at MIT, Rhee participated in a project with him. A good teacher at a good school while academic excellence seems to be a big help to get an important position in the international community, too.

Editorial Writer Choi Yeong-hae (yhchoi65@donga.com)