A senior Korean economist, Dr. Soogil Young has been President of the National Strategy Institute (NSI), an independent think tank on economic reform and national governance, in Seoul, since March 2006.  He is concurrently serving as Chairman of the Korean National Committee for Pacific Economic Cooperation (KOPEC) and on the Presidential Committee on Green Growth where he is chairs the Subcommittee on Green Growth and Industries. Dr. Young served as a senior economist at four governmental economic think tanks during 1978-1998, including as a senior fellow for the Korea Development Institute (KDI), as President of the Korea Transport Institute (KOTI), and as President for the Korea Institute for International Economic Policy (KIEP).  He served as Korea’s Ambassador to the OECD in Paris during 1998-2001 where he concurrently served as Chairman of the Advisory Board on the OECD Development Centre. Dr. Young has been active on many blue-ribbon commissions for the government on economic policy issues, including three Presidential Commissions. In 1994, he was awarded the National Decoration of the Tongbaik Order for his contribution to the epochal “real-name financial transactions reform” undertaken in August 1993 by President Kim Young-Sam.  Dr. Young has been participating since the early 1980s in various international forums on trade, development and cooperation, including in the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council (PECC) where he represents KOPEC. He has written extensively on trade, development and regional integration in East Asia with focus on the challenges facing Korea.