..Press Release................................ UNESCAP News Services

Date 2 February 2005

Press Release No: G/02/2005

UN Secretary-General renews Mr. Kim Hak-Su's appointment as UNESCAP Executive Secretary

Bangkok (United Nations Information Services) -- The United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has renewed Mr. Kim Hak-Su's appointment as Executive Secretary of the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations for two more years.

"I am very pleased and honoured to have the opportunity to serve UNESCAP for an additional two years," said Mr. Kim. "Over the past years, we have made great progress for the work of our organization to meet the millennium development goals (MDGS) as well as to reform the organization."

Mr. Kim assumed the post of Executive Secretary in July 2000.

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 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. He 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.

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.

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