Rep. Lee Young. (President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol’s transition committee)
President-elect Yoon Suk-yeol on Wednesday named a startup founder-turned-lawmaker to lead the Ministry of Small Medium-sized Enterprises and Startups, in his second round of Cabinet nominations since Sunday.
Rep. Lee Young founded local internet and mobile security provider Teruten in 2000, and won a proportional representation seat without a constituency in the 2020 parliamentary election. She is the only legislator at Yoon’s People Power Party with experience in running startups, according to Yoon.
“I expect to see Lee steering the ministry to foster small but market-leading companies that could offer South Korea’s new growth momentum,” Yoon said, calling her the right nominee who could connect with SME owners and startup founders, often overshadowed by the country’s conglomerates.
Established in 1996 as an agency under the Trade Ministry, the SMEs and Startups Ministry was launched in July 2017 to better address concerns raised by small and budding enterprises.
By Choi Si-young (
siyoungchoi@heraldcorp.com)